Gouge - Beyond Death

Norway may go down in history as the land of black metal, but they've got some pretty good death metal bands up there too. For proof, one only needs to look at 'Beyond Death' by Gouge, which came out recently on Hell's Headbangers Record. If you're familiar with this label, then you know what you're in for. For the uninitiated, 'Beyond Death' is a collection of no nonsense, old school, primitive sounding death metal from start to finish. The music here can be summed up in a few words like savage, heavy and primal. But that may cause a misconception that this album is only about savagery. The riffs and song writing here are of very good quality.Though the album is murky, thick and carries that old school effect, the guitar riffs are audible and one could tell the quality in the writing.

There is an inherent catchiness and groove to the riffs, just like the bands used to have in the good old days. The drumming is mostly composed of double bass action and the constant cymbal crashes. It's nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. The vocals are grimy, but the lyrics are quite discernible which is a big plus in my books.

There is no room for breathing in this album as the tracks continue to pound the listener one after the other. The pace of album is almost constant and the tracks have a thrash metal like speed. This may cause monotony when listening to it on repeat, but if pure death metal is all you crave, then look no further than this.