Gorguts
Pleiades Dust
Season Of Mist
Release Date: 13 May 2016
Reviewed by: Alex Sievers
Most bands write and record an album and place each named song after another, separately, so you know, you can pick and choose which songs you want for that driving playlist you’ve always wanted to make. Well, Canada’s Gorguts aren’t most bands, and their new EP-album-thing, Pleiades Dust, is just one “long narration composition”, as the band puts it.
Basically, it’s a 33-minute long song, and I was so happy that it was actually a solid song to boot.
Apart from the classical music delivery, it is pretty easy to see where the songs, or rather the movements, would begin and end. Regardless, the EP does make for some fine listening and much like their last album, Colored Sands, this is a pretty solid entry for the quartet. But while it’s good, musically, this really is just the same ol’ Gorguts, just wrapped up in a more consistent and better-polished half-hour package (and a perfect release for Season Of Mist).
Die-hard and casual listeners will feel right at home with Luc Lemay and the gang’s latest release as their sound is still dark and brutal as ever, and a great example of what death metal can be in 2016. It’s also a decent example of an album these days that you really need to sit down and take in to get the most out of it.
Interestingly enough though, the EP touches on the rich culture of the Middle East and how without us Westerners studying and translating their history books and records, we wouldn’t have nearly half the shit we have today. High school kids – you can blame 13th century Middle Eastern people for helping to preserve mathematics. Obviously, there’s a lot more to it, and even the band has said so as well. Finally, I do find that this really is a case of the themes and backstory being more interesting than the actual music. Still, as I said above, Pleiades Dust is a solid and consistent release no matter how you spin it.
