Hey there tech fiends, it's that time of the week again. Before we dive into today's focus, here's the usual weekly reminder that if you're looking for even more sick bands, all prior editions of this series can be perused here.
What’s in a name? I think fans of death metal and the brutal end of tech-death have come to embrace the sensory overload inherent within what this kind of music conveys. At the same time, even over-the-top band names may not necessarily mean the music is deadly serious. Today’s focus is on Perth, Australia natives Gorestorm and their name is a perfect example of bands in this vein embracing the absurd while still creating top-notch death metal that is no joke.
The group dropped their second album, Dissimilitude, in mid-October of last year, but, thanks to Facebook’s algorithm switch ups changing what people see from non-personal pages, I only recently found out that the album had dropped midway through January. If this wasn’t as incredible as it is, I wouldn’t be devoting time to spreading the word about this ridiculously brutal and brain scrambling album many months after it was released.
If you're new to them, Gorestorm is a two-man band who describes themselves as playing “Experimental Techgrind”. Further, they explain that the effort is “Three years in the making. Dissimilitude combines brutal and experimental vibes to create a soul-crushing desolate soundscape. For fans of Wormed, Portal, and Gorguts.” That’s a pretty spot on triangulation soundwise, as this is really out there oddball stuff, even by technical brutal death metal standards.
I’d add Artificial Brain, Origin, Dying Fetus, Demilich, and Malignancy as additional points of comparison musically. Some of which the band lists on their much lengthier list of influences found on Facebook that also includes Lividity, Psychofagist, Gridlink, Nasum, Beyond Creation, Neurosis, Neuraxis, Necrophagist, Antigama, Deeds of Flesh, Defeated Sanity, Slayer, Gigan, Rings of Saturn, Vampire Squid, and Spawn of Possession.
To state the obvious, yes, the band does not make music for the faint of heart nor for those without a stomach for excess and spastic fits of sonic destruction. Beyond the mercurial variety on display soundwise, Dissimilitude draws far and wide from the past and present in a way that really is all their own. It feels like a missing link of sorts, a strange gateway inhabiting worlds beyond our understanding.
The opening salvo of insanity, “Time Portals of the Sepulchral Batracian Chrononauts”, is a strong statement of intent and a test for the listener who will either find themselves wide-eyed and entranced or immediately annoyed and quickly turning it off. For those who find this release as intriguing as I do, there’s much to enjoy all the way through to the album’s final nail in the coffin, “Evolved Beyond Intelligence”. Nine out of the albums twelve songs reside under the three-minute mark, a wise choice that helps everything not lose impact in spite of cramming a ton of ideas within atypical unorthodox song structures and constant maniacal blasting.
Suffice to say, Dissimilitude is an accomplished work of strange unnerving brutality, split between jagged razor-edged chaos and precisely crafted passages of warp speed shredding. As touched on above, it’s even more impressive to me that the band consists of only a two-person line-up, as this is incredibly ambitious material. As usual, you be the judge after clicking play below through the embedded album player. If you like what you’re hearing, Dissimilitude can be ordered through the Gorestorm Bandcamp Page. You can follow the band over on the Gorestorm Facebook Page.
