GIRE

Described to me as sounding like 'the heavy parts of maudlin of the Well,' I looked into this ensemble from Hungary, intrigued by what I might find. Despite having only recorded one studio album during their career, Gire seems to have created a very distinctive sound, meshing extreme metal with some strange sounds and tones to create a breed of technical avant-metal which certainly leaves an impression, despite the fact that it is not entirely satisfying.

The sound initially falls into the realm of death metal, but it is not long before it gets dragged out into a load of other styles. Gypsy violins and even disco synths are used throughout this debut, and coupled with the traditional heaviness and brutality of the band's staple genre; the sound is unique, to say the least. Despite the band's rare ability to come up with a really memorable sound however, most of the songs themselves don't carry themselves too well. The musicianship and composition are both solid throughout, but only a few songs have the emotional and dynamic resonance to really be considered 'excellent.' The only two tracks that really stood out to me were the first and third track; 'Zöld Zivatar' and 'Hét Madár' respectively.

The first track opens the album very respectably; blistering blast beat drumming leads into what can be considered the instrumental archetype of the album (guitars and strange keyboard sounds playing in unison.) Later on after a relatively conventional structure plays out, a drawn out section complete with violins and intentionally out-of-tuned guitars plays out which really raises the level of expectation for the rest of the album. Unfortunately, the only other song that seems to meet the challenge is 'Het Madar,' which has some pleasant, if highly accented vocals and a nice contrast of beautifully heavy and mellower sections.

The vocals are a pretty mixed bag here. We have typical growls, spoken word poetry and a few segments of clean singing thrown in for good measure. The vocals go very well with the music, even though they don't hold much weight on their own. Instrumentally, the metal here is in pretty top form for what it is. There is definately technicality here in the rhythm sections, but unlike most metal of this order, there is very little going to the point of being virtuosic, or 'shreddy' to put it a bit more harshly. To Gire's credit, the musicianship functions very well within the confines of the song, although it would have been refreshing to hear the band break out and really belt out once or twice. The strange, spacy keyboard sounds that pop up frequently in this album add much to the experimental nature of the album, but can sometimes sound annoying in their almost whimsical tone and timbre.

Perhaps the strangest thing about Gire is not it's experimentation, but rather it's listenability and accessible sensibility, in the face of all of their experimentation. This is not at all to say that their music is 'easy to get into,' but rather a great deal less challenging to appreciate than most other acts of the avant-garde scene. While there's much better out there for the aspiring avant-metalhead, it really is a shame that Gire broke up with so little recorded music. As it stands however, this is a decent (albeit non-remarkable) work of music, and is worth giving a listen or two.