GORGUTS - PLEIADES' DUST REVIEW

(Front page blurb:)

An intelligent, highly technical album that will solidify Gorguts' position on t
op of the Quebec tech-death scene.

Sound - 9/10
The Quebec death metal scene has produced some of the genre's most recognizable
and creative names, and one of the names that frequently appears at the top of t
hat list is Sherbrooke's Gorguts, fronted by mastermind guitarist and vocalist L
uc Lemay. The band also features guitarist Kevin Hufnagel and bass/Warr guitar m
astermind Colin Marston from bands such as Dysrhythmia and Behold... The Arctopu
s, with live drummer Patrice Hamelin. The band's earlier material would graduall
y become more and more experimental and dissonant, culminating in the release "O
bscura", which would showcase an entirely new way of thinking for the Quebec met
al scene, with far more emphasis on dissonant guitar sounds, odd rhythms, and le
ss on blast beats and Slayer-like tremolo picking. After another album and a len
gthy breakup spurred by the suicide of former drummer Steve MacDonald, the band
reunited in 2008, and released the far more progressive, atmospheric "Colored Sa
nds".
This new EP, "Pleiades' Dust", continues where "Colored Sands" leaves off, with
far more progressive leanings in their sound, lengthy song structures (the entir
e EP consists of only one song, the title track), intricate guitar and bass play
ing, and dynamics that go from a whisper to a roar many times over the course of
the track.
At many points in the record, Lemay's and Hufnagel's guitar playing sounds almos
t Frippian, with extremely unusual harmonies and textures weaving in and out of
each other, evoking an almost King Crimson-like atmosphere. The rhythms on this
album sound far more complex than they actually are, with much of the album bein
g in 4/4 time, but there are some really interesting beats on the album, and sec
tions in time signatures I even have trouble counting. Patrice Hamelin switches
between solid groove and blast beats with an almost unmatched amount of grace an
d panache. Interestingly, the guitar solos (which are quite numerous on this rec
ord) actually sound fairly straightforward compared to the sounds heard on "Obsc
ura", and add a bit of a more typical melodic flair to an otherwise quite disson
ant album. But don't expect something very easy to listen to, a lot of the melod
ies on this record have a very contemporary classical music flair to them, which
makes sense as Luc Lemay is a fan of the style. Pretty much the closest compari
son I can make with more recent metal bands is the band Coma Cluster Void.
Colin Marston has always been a favourite bassist of mine, and he unleashes the
fury on this record, with some of his most intense playing I've heard in ages. W
hile most bassists opt to perform a supporting role, underpinning the guitar rif
fs and gluing the melodies to the drums, Marston almost prefers to be the lead i
nstrument, often being responsible for the melodic flourishes that are peppered
throughout this record.
But more importantly than the skill of the musicians on this record, is the ques
tion: is a 30-minute song making up an entire EP difficult to listen to on its o
wn? Thankfully, the answer to this is no, this album is actually quite an easy l
isten, despite its ambitious scope. The way the parts flow, it almost sounds as
if the album is made up of many songs, and there are plenty of sections that are
quiet and make glorious use of ambient spaces. The band has mentioned in an int

erview that the EP is sort of split into "movements" but did not give specific n
ames for them, but did mention their start and end times (0:00
9:28, 9:28
17:57,
17:57 21:13, and 21:13
end), and the lyrics make mention of section titles like
"Thinker's Slumber" and "Within the Rounded Walls", which may or may not corres
pond to those times.
Production-wise, my copy of the album seems to be mixed fairly quietly, giving e
ach instrument ample room to breathe in the mix, though it can be a little hard
to hear the guitars at times (this presented a problem on my first listen of the
record, on a crowded bus ride). But that's not really a big gripe, considering
the propensity for death metal albums to be brickwalled to the extreme. It's kin
d of refreshing to hear a death metal album that's actually got some sonic breat
hing room.

Lyrics - 9/10
Gorguts has really come across as one of the metal scene's more literate bands,
with the last album, "Colored Sands", revolving around the history and culture o
f Tibet from early on until its hostile takeover by China, and "Pleiades' Dust"
continues this tradition of historical lyrics by focusing on the intellectual an
d cultural advances made by the Middle East during Europe's dark ages (from the
fifth century until the late 1200s), and specifically the history of the House O
f Wisdom, a book repository that existed in ancient Baghdad from the eighth cent
ury AD until its destruction by the Mongolian Empire in 1258. Included with the
lyrics that are sung are descriptions of each section in their historical contex
t, and the lyrics paint a vivid picture of the ancient Islamic's pursuit of scie
ntific knowledge ("Enthralling thirst for ideas/Led by translation's quill/Searc
hing the world with no fear/Paving the way for curious minds"), and the sad end
of the ancient library ("Blindly burning to decimate/Pages to ashes/Cognition's
fate/Drowned in despotic waters/Treasures from minds are lost forever"). One can
't help but feel that the delivery of these lyrics, in a very guttural scream fo
r pretty much the entirety of the album, give a sense that we are living in a ve
ry similar time, where we are watching our vast stores of knowledge burn, but no
t in a literal sense like the House Of Wisdom, but by simply being overrun by ps
eudoscientific opinions. It's interesting how the lyrics are about historical ti
mes, and one can still find something very contemporary about them.
Overall, these are some of the best lyrics I've heard in a metal album in quite
some time. Brutal, emotional, and historical. Give this album a try, you might j
ust learn something!

Overall Impression - 9/10

With such a great metal scene coming out of Quebec, it's hard for bands to reall
y stand out, but Gorguts' intelligent brand of progressive technical death metal
makes this band a dead ringer for the foremost band to come out of La Belle Pro
vince. At times, this album is brutally terrifying, and others, terrifyingly bea
utiful. The snaky guitar and bass lines really pull you in and grip you. There a
re frighteningly soft moments that explode into chaotic drumming and guitar play
ing, but the music never feels like it's about to fall apart. There's always an
order to it, a grand scheme, and in many senses, it feels like this album is far
more well-orchestrated than a lot of death metal albums out there in this day a
nd age.

There aren't really a lot of bands out there I can compare it to, besides the af
orementioned Coma Cluster Void, which is co-fronted by another member of the Que
bec death metal scene, former Cryptopsy vocalist Mike DiSalvo. It might also app
eal to Meshuggah fans who really dug their more long-form pieces like "I" or "Ca
tch Thirty-Three", especially given Luc's and Kevin's adept extended-range guita
r chops.
If you're a fan of intelligent, deeply thoughtful metal, this is going to be a r
elease you're definitely going to want to check out as soon as humanly possible.
Very highly recommended.