Language: English
Genre: Death Metal, Progressive Metal
Style: Technical Death Metal
.FLAC via Mega (Link)
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☠: Selected by Buccaneer
© 2015 Unique Leader RecordsReview by "Kronos" for Anggry Metal Guy.com
While other bands focus on heavy hits and constant pummeling, Gorod have made themselves the Muhammad Ali of death metal: light on their feet and surgically precise, and incredibly fun to bear witness to. Unlike many of their peers, Gorod have always had a fantastic understanding of flow and dynamics, making all of their stop-and go riff switches and snappy progressive interludes flash by with the smoothness of a well-greased porpoise. Their unique brand of jazzy tech-death hasn’t been seen since 2012’s A Perfect Absolution, which I will defend as one of the best tech-death albums of the decade thus far. Now death metal’s wine-drinkingest, cheese-eatingest surrender monkeys are back to dazzle and defy, with the beautifully-fronted A Maze of Recycled Creeds.
Like A Perfect Absolution, the
album begins floating like a butterfly through the airy temple audience
that bears whispering witness to “Air de l’Ordre” before the band stings
like a bee, flying away with “Temple of the Art-God.” It’s a dynamic
and impressive song with a catchy chorus (“now let your trumpets
blow!”), but only serves to further whet the palate for better material,
and as you may already know, the following single “Celestia Nature” is
just that; Gorod at their top, manning a chariot pulled
by flaming guitars that spills notes onto the road at every jump and
jostle. “Inner Alchemy” follows in the same vein but with a swaggering
verse riff that’s a great example of A Maze of Recycled Creeds‘ unique personality.
Whereas A Perfect Absolution
was cinematic and grandiose, loping across a huge swath of musical
ground, this album is less adventurous but more focused, exploring
a fast-paced crystalline riffing style. The songs are more immediate,
but have to trade off individuality in order to do so. That’s not to say
that the band have abandoned wacky hi-jinks, though. There’s plenty of
head-scratching to be done over excellent songs like “An Order to
Reclaim.” Led by Benoit Claus’ funky bass, it’s one of the catchiest
songs the band has ever written and somehow manages to be incredibly
heavy while flipping the bird at anything resembling traditional death
metal. Not only is the bass theme ripped straight out of some cheesy
Bossa Nova song, the chorus features off-beat guitar strums a la my
least favorite genre, Ska. Only Gorod could conceive of this sort of absurdity, and only Gorod could pull it off.
What’s more, A Maze of Recycled Creeds is sonically unique; Gorod‘s guitars have been getting progressively cleaner since Leading Vision,
and this is their least distorted tone yet; the album has tons of space
in the mix because the guitars don’t dominate the low-end frequencies,
which makes the bass shine and the drums pop naturally. It doesn’t sound
heavy unless the band is playing something heavy, so the album feels
very dynamic and taut.
After a few listens, A Maze of Recycled Creeds had
me both intrigued and slightly disappointed; the songs aren’t as
memorable as those on the last album, but the band’s sense of fun kept
me coming back, and every time I listen to the album it gets
better. Only time will tell whether I come to love it as much as A Perfect Absolution,
but given the rate at which I’ve been coming back for more of it, the
album will soon be tied with its predecessor for second place in the
halls of Gorod release quality. Right after the Transcendence EP. Fight me.
tags: gorod,
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