COLORED SANDS

This album is a conceptual piece concerning practices and the historical timeline before and after occupation in regards to Tibetan culture by musicians under the banner of a name which co-joins "gore" and "guts" into a single word. Gorguts!! It's sorta fun to say.

Being one of the pioneers of the more abrasive and dissonant brands of extreme metal, Colored Sands is Gorguts' first release in over a decade, and unlike a lot of bands that awaken from long and ancient slumbers to release half-hearted new tripe while relying on their "legendary" early stuff for touring purposes, this is some pretty amazing stuff. The overall production is massive and almost punishing with a truly fat guitar sound leading the charge.

Skill-wise the band is on fire, and I especially dig the eclectic drumming of John Longstreth, which doesn't eschew blast-beats yet never relies on them either, preferring more jazzy shape- shifting patterns and no shortage of tribal and slow passages. Musically it's more coherent than their prior two releases, but still uncanny and difficult to absorb with the numerous bizarre chord progressions and lurches into deliberate atonality. One notable feature I must also mention are the guitar solos, which are rather brilliant and often melodic, which is quite a feat considering the churning miasmic riffs these solos ride upon. Lemay's vocals are ferocious bellowing growls that occasionally veer into 'anguished' territory, but not to the same 'lance-up- buttocks' level that their Obscura album possesses.

Songwise, these behemoths can be a bit too much to deal with after awhile, as the blending of their own brand of chaotic metal with certain aspects of more recent acts such as Deathspell Omega and Ulcerate can lead to a sudden urge for extreme consonance (or in my case...a Norah Jones album), but individually these beasts are brutally entertaining. Let's not forget centerpiece "The Battle of Chamdo" though. A classical number composed by Lemay right when a break from the maelstrom is needed. And it's not just an oasis, but a damn fine musical piece on its own.

Like much of their catalog, this effort is not an easy feast to digest by any means, but the immense talent and craftsmanship towards making something so difficult for many to enjoy deserves accolades from the loonier sides of music fandom. It took a while, but it's nice to see them back again after so long.