Gorod Process of a New Decline
Willowtip
According to French metallions Gorod’s cosmology, an advanced extra-terrestrial species known as
Mockery aside, Gorod’s third album of sci fi encrusted technical metal shenanigans hits all the right calculus-core equations required of the genre. The songs skitter like a chunk of butter dropped into a ripping hot skillet, refusing to settle on any single riff or movement for long but rather slide and splatter around you. A song like “Programmers of Decline” hops about between fragments of riffs like nanoscale robot fleas.
Gorod are at their best when they blithely skip away from tech metal convention. Opener “Disavow Your God” busts out a transcendent melody right before the two minute mark that glances off the song’ more protein packed sections is easily Process of a New Decline’s highlight. After your obligatory Martian invader of the Theremin-style opening, “The Path” veers into almost gothic and *gasp* poppy bridge that bounces cleaner vocals off of FXed ad astra guitars in a pairing that harkens back to Dark Tranquility circa Haven. Ditto with “Watershed,” which warps into delicate alien arias that highlight not only Gorod’s obvious technical mastery but the always elusive songwriting craft as well. That may be Gorod’s strongest point. Tech metal is custom crafted for self indulgence but Process of a New Decline shows Gorod know how to ruthlessly edit out the frippery when a song like the relatively straightforward “Splinters of Life.”
Tech metal isn’t my thing but I can appreciate the craft and artistry that went into Process of a New Decline. While it will definitely set the graphing calculator set aflame with passion, I just don’t see it converting outsiders like me.
[Full disclosure: Willowtip provided me with a review copy.]
13 comments:
the only tech death band i've ever really given much of my time to is nile... egyptian themed technical death metal = one of my guilty pleasures lol
also it seems like i've heard the first paragraph of your review from drunken friends?/ acquaintances?/ escaped mental patients? one too many times for comfort... bleh
An excellent review, as always. You, sir, write circles around many a man.
As a sometime connoisseur of tech-death cheese, I think Process of a New Decline is a pretty fantastic album. As you mention, the rare ability to write songs is what sets Gorod apart from the frequent wretchedness of their chosen genre.
Haha! Are those ANb lyrics interspersed in your review? And did they send you the new Squash Bowels? I preordered it but would like to hear a little about it before they nip it in the post.
vengeance -- note to self, fire comedy writers. and i soured on nile a few years ago. in their darkened shrines was friggen awesome but i thought they got stale after that.
atanamar -- i'll definitely defer to you on this one. i can definitely see the appeal, i just don't think i'll be pulling this one out yet.
zmaj -- not yet but it took me better than a month to get around to this one so i don't know if they'll send that one over to me or not.
I actually like tech-metal. PsyOpus owns. But this is too much death metal for me. I really tried to like it, bu Gorod is one of those bands everyone but me likes apparently.
lol keep on rockin some of my friends just suck ;)
yeah i can't get into it. i hear the noodling and i automatically get bored with it. i'm sure there is more to it, but for me...yawn.
we've come to an interesting point here. since this is a grind-specific blog and grind is not so high on that whole musical competence thing, how much tech is too much?
and can anybody name a tech grind band? or is that a total oxymoron?
you've all given me much to ponder.
If there is such a thing, Maruta would qualify as "tech-grind" on their LP, fo sho.
I dig a little bit of tech death: some Cryptopsy, Nile's "In their...", Ulcerate, Origin, and a few others. I remember liking Gorod when they were Goregasm, but lost track of them.
Most of the tech-dm I've heard centers on cleaner production and triggered drums. Grindcore antithesis.
206 raises good points. the only thing i think that may come close to tech grind -- and this will definitely be controversial -- would be the locust.
but if anyone can think of a tech grind, let me know cuz now i'm seriously curious. i think i can almost hear it in my head.
noisear-pyroclastic annhilation
I wouldn't call it tech grind, but it def. has some technical moments...shit i would even say pig destroyer and kalibas have some tech moments.
hmmmm. if noisear qualifies then we'll definitely have to include dxax.
and beyond kalibas' first ep (which i was in the process of writing about) i always lumped them in with death rather than grind. but yeah, jody roberts et al could certainly mangle them some riffs.
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