The lucky thirteenth album from the Polish death metal quartet is set for release this coming Friday, bringing the bands particular brand of brutality back to the scene. I’ve been at least semi-familiar with them for years now, knowing the name and the odd earlier song alongside their previous album, which we reviewed! So, I’m pretty excited to check this out, four years on from their last release. Join us in checking out my second full foray into the world of Hate!

The title track opens things with a suitably ominous, dark acoustic guitar chord progression. The strings and extra bits do such a good job of building up the tension before the heaviness explodes in with a MASSIVE scream and some huge riffing and drumming. It honestly feels pretty black metal from the get go, which is never a bad thing and was kinda expected! It’s immediately heavy, the instrumentation and the screams through the verse being crushingly so. I can’t help but immediately notice how fantastic the production is on it too, everything sounding huge and it being a far-cry from a lot of other death metal bands in the scene. It makes it sound incredible, and as someone who has a weird relationship with death metal, it has certainly eased me into loving this! I love that it drops back to the lower bit with the spoken word too, giving the track some great dynamics. And to follow it off with a mind-blowing guitar solo was also a great choice! And I love the final couple of minutes of the track, it almost feeling proggy in the amount of parts it has. It’s a really awesome way to open up the album, setting the stage perfectly!

‘Iphigenia’ continues the epic feel and heaviness awesomely. And again, it kicks off with more blackened metal riffs, which sound fantastic! The riffing throughout this entire track blew me away, to be honest, with the clean and heavy contrast bit after heading into the chainsaw-like work in the verses all being phenomenal. And the epic, blackened death metal vibes throughout the song are incredible. It reminds me a little of Rotting Christ, and y’all know how much I loved their last album! Again it’s on the longer side so it gets to really give everything chance to breath and meet the most out of each part. It’s a huge highlight of the album for us, and one that easily makes it onto our playlist!

Tracks like ‘The Vanguard’, ‘A Ghost of Lost Delight’ and ‘Alfa Inferi Goddess of War’ all share a similar feel to the aforementioned tracks. None of that is a bad thing at all, as it’s all such awesome music, and this style is sometimes hard to deviate from and feel natural. But it’s a struggle to talk about this style over and over without it reading really boring or like I’m a massive fangirl. All three tracks are awesome and well worth checking out if you like the genre!

‘Perun Rising’ has a bit of a different vibe to it, but that may be because of the tribal intro track, ‘Rite of Triglav’. The riffing feels a bit more open though, it still being heavy but having a different atmosphere. It’s a nice (slight) change of sound and another easy highlight of the album for me!

The closing couple of tracks, ‘Prophet of Arkhen’ and ‘Ageless Harp of Devilry’ are two more awesome, blackened death metal tracks. Again, both songs are awesome, with the former being another solid highlight of the record. But again, they somewhat sadly sounded pretty similar to almost all the rest of the album. It’s all fantastic, but I would have liked a slight bit of variety, even if to help me spice up the writing somewhat!

Overall: This is a damn good, heavy, atmospheric death metal album. There is plenty to love on the release, especially if you are into the genre, and my slight complaint around the similarities shouldn’t stop you from checking this one out. The band are an absolute powerhouse of riffs, lyrics and heaviness, and have proved why they are one of the most respected in their style over and over, and again here. Again, I’s highly recommend if you are into anything on the heavier side of metal. It’s an incredibly solid album from a band that have such a consistently great output!

The Score: 7.5/10

Gomorran is a blackened death metal band from Finland. Only established in 2019, the band rolled into 2021 in a big way with the release of their first single. They didn’t stop there, releasing a second before finally releasing their first EP, this one, to close out the year. I hadn’t heard of them before we received their EP from our friends at Inverse records, so I am excited to check them out and see how much of a blackened death metal fan I am!

Intro track ‘Tavern’ starts us off slow, quietly, and rather beautifully. A simple acoustic guitar note begins, a chord progression building over the top and a simple yet perfect violin coming in over the top. It definitely gives off the vibe of it being in a medieval/dark ages sort of time. It gives the EP an immediate epic feel to it. The instruments build up more and more steadily throughout the nearly 2-minute track, it being a perfect setup for something heavier. The violin melody towards the end did give off some Game of Thrones vibes too, which is never an issue as that theme is incredible.

‘Black Plague’ then gets into more of what I was expecting, some evil-sounding guitar chords and the drums building up slowly and heavily over the top. The main riff soon kicks in and sounds heavy and menacing before the vocals come in over the top to add to that even more. The low growled scream is fantastic, and the drums immediately start to work overtime. However, what really catches my ear is the keys/synth in the back. They take the edge off the music a little bit and give it an almost mystical sound. It’s awesome. There’s a REALLY heavy bit around the 2-minute mark where the vocals get even lower and it’s awesome. The whole track is a collection of black metal guitaring, guttural vocals, and blast beats, and I am all for it. I’d love to see it live.

The band’s first single, ‘Sermon’ slows things down a little at first. The steadier pace if anything makes it even heavier, though. The drums drop out just before a minute in outside of a single cymbal and the guitars just hit simple chords, giving the powerful, crazy-good scream space to breath. It’s more of a chance to show off and impresses me massively. The track then kicks into high gear, everyone working overtime as they go into a speedy black metal part. It’s so evil and menacing sounding, setting an incredible tone throughout this EP so far. The track opens up again a little when the instruments go back to regular/half-time, and the vocals go a little Danny Filth. The main recurring riff is also insanely good. A fantastic track, and one that makes the playlist!

The band’s biggest song to date, ‘Hopeless Endeavour’, fades in and out with a guitar riff before the entire band slaps you in the face with a huge second one. The track doesn’t let up once, either, just powers through 4 minutes of massive riffs, quick beats, and a surprisingly catchy and open chorus. I can see why this is their biggest single, that chorus is awesome and the rest of it is crazy. Another track from Gomorran that easily makes the playlist!

‘Essaiah’ has a more plodding pace to it than the previous tracks. It’s a good thing after three tracks that were very full-on and in your face. I enjoyed this song but I have to admit it didn’t go anywhere that interesting. There’s some awesome guitar work in there, though.

However, the last track, ‘Hail Caesar’, really impressed me. Opening on an atmospheric note with a male choir. It definitely didn’t remind me of the Halo theme… A menacing guitar riff comes in over the top, the track slow-building perfectly. It soon heads into more black metal, quick drums and guitars and heavy, growled vocals. It stays at that level for most of the rest of the track but parts of it have a real epic feel to it and there are some chanted vocals around the middle that are awesome. Between those points and it being a longer track than the others, it gives off an even more epic feel to things and was definitely the right track to finish the EP on. Heck, the entire extended outro part which faded into the choir again was amazing. Awesome stuff from Gomorran.

Overall: This was great. Not being as used to the genre and heaviness as I should be, I enjoyed this a hell of a lot more than I thought I would. It was crazy heavy, crazy good and everyone involved is crazy talented. I can see big things for Gomorran in the future if they keep on putting out stuff like this! 

The Score: 8/10

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