{"id":24339,"date":"2015-02-26T00:01:19","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T00:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=24339"},"modified":"2015-02-26T15:57:13","modified_gmt":"2015-02-26T15:57:13","slug":"album-review-gouge-beyond-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-gouge-beyond-death\/","title":{"rendered":"GOUGE – Beyond Death (2015) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

GOUGE
Beyond Death<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nHells Headbangers (2015)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Under the influence of catchy, lo-fi old school death metal comes Norwegian duo Gouge. Beyond Death<\/em> is the debut album from Christoffer Br\u00e5then (vocals, guitar, bass) and Herman Holen (drums). <\/p>\n

For a band that only began life in 2011 this is one excellent opus that is all too keen to pay homage to a time when death metal was only just beginning to emerge from the cracks, so to some extent we\u2019re thinking of the musical form in its rawest incarnation; early Death, Possessed, Death Strike, Master, et al delivered with enough fiendish quality to have you thinking that this was actually recorded around 1984, such is its raw, primeval intensity. <\/p>\n

Okay, so maybe it could be argued that it\u2019s betraying its roots by not being \u201cEuropean\u201d sounding; after all, the likes of Obliteration, Lantern and Omnizide have churned out some truly raucous yet cavernous Euro death metal, so why would a band from the snowy climes of the world want to sound so American? Well, I wouldn\u2019t go that far, when one considers that some of Norway\u2019s most formidable bands started out as remote, lo-fi death metal acts influenced by the American gods. As I always say, if it\u2019s executed in the right manner then there\u2019s no reason to moan, and Gouge\u2019s debut record is one that should appeal to anyone who likes that real foetid death metal odour that eventually went on to coat such miserable yet classic efforts from Autopsy and the likes.<\/p>\n

The music is played mostly fast and has a watery, gruesome feel, especially in the vocal vomits of Br\u00e5then whose dry, gore-soaked coughs immediately give the record that primitive, old school feel. Musically, the band are pretty much a speedy no frills affair, opting for thrashier climes with their death-grind \u2013 with foul essences of Repulsion and the grindier tinges of the scene. I love the fact that the press release for this album describes Gouge\u2019s sound as \u201cgross\u201d and \u201cgutsfucking\u201d and those two words goes a long way to describing this chaotic manifestation. The likes of \u2018Putrefaction\u2019 could well have been ripped from Death\u2019s classic Scream Bloody Gore<\/em> (1987), while \u2018Breath Of The Reaper\u2019 owes more to old school German thrash in its cutting execution and black thrash frenzy. <\/p>\n

Gouge is not merely reliant of decrepit bouts of indecipherable speed, but this is the main formula for their gross cacophony. Indeed, the likes of \u2018Malady Macabre\u2019, and \u2018Butcher Attack\u2019 are unrelenting doses of speed. For some truly morbid mid-tempo droning, I have to recommend the initial dreary doom of \u2018Blood Feast\u2019 and the equally morose gore fumes of \u2018Uncontrollable Madness\u2019; although these are quick to evolve into an act of bludgeoning, it\u2019s mouldy death metal you cannot live without. <\/p>\n

There is no point in marking Gouge down for their eagerness to replicate the 80s death metal legends, because this is clearly what they\u2019ve set out to do and succeeded in spitting out a truly brilliant debut album of fusty speed.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GOUGEBeyond Death Hells Headbangers (2015)Rating: 8.5\/10 Under the influence of catchy, lo-fi old school death metal comes Norwegian duo Gouge. Beyond Death is the debut album from Christoffer Br\u00e5then (vocals, guitar, bass) and Herman Holen (drums). For a band that only began life in 2011 this is one excellent opus that is all too keen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1651],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-gouge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24339"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24343,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24339\/revisions\/24343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}