Monday 16 May 2016

Gorguts - ‘Pleiades’ Dust’ (Album Review)

By: Daniel Jackson

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 13/05/2016
Label: Season of Mist


I think more than anything ‘Pleiades’ Dust’ has shown me the absolute absurdity of the expectations we’ve set for Gorguts. ‘Pleiades’ Dust’ is a great album and what it lacks in song writing hooks, it makes up for with brooding musical atmosphere and crafting an engaging, emotional journey.

‘Pleiades’ Dust’ CD//LP//DD track listing:

1. Pleiades’ Dust

Gorguts is:

Luc Lemay | Guitar, Vocals
Colin Marston | Bass
Kevin Hufnagel | Guitar
Patrice Hamelin | Drums

The Review:

Everyone reading this knows what Gorguts is all about. No one is, or should be reading this review as their introduction to Gorguts. Gorguts completely decimated the standards for what death metal is or could be in 1998, when they released ‘Obscura’. The album was a jangled, contorting audio nightmare. Since then, every release has had to meet a completely unfair standard, and yet they have matched it in spite of this. The world levies heavy expectations upon Gorguts, and they meet or exceed them every single time.

Pleiades’ Dust’, is a one song album. I say album, because its thirty three minutes long and it’s pressed on an LP and sold at the cost of a full length album, so I can’t call it an EP, no matter what the reasoning is. The obvious question with a band as beloved and respected as Gorguts is always going to be “how does it stack up to their best material?”, to which the best answer I can give is “reasonably well”. On the whole, this album is going to make “Obscura to presentGorguts fans very happy, and I too am very happy with the album as a whole.

What I can’t help but shake is the feeling that this album is missing those big, impactful moments. Or maybe that the album’s “big, impactful moments” just don’t resonate or stick to the memory banks as well as they have before. ‘Obscura’ and ‘From Wisdom to Hate’ are loaded with riffs that burrowed their way into your brain and stay there forever. There isn’t really any one moment that sticks in my brain from ‘Pleiades’ Dust’ that has gotten its claws in me the way the opening moments of “Le Toit du Monde” or “An Ocean of Wisdom”. There isn’t really a moment as devastatingly heavy as the back half of “Forgotten Arrows”.

I think more than anything ‘Pleiades’ Dust’ has shown me the absolute absurdity of the expectations we’ve set for Gorguts. I caught myself feeling disappointed in a great album, which is fucking ridiculous on my part. And ‘Pleiades’ Dust’ is a great album. What it lacks in song writing hooks, it makes up for with brooding musical atmosphere and crafting an engaging, emotional journey. I just wish it was easier to point specific moments and say “you don’t want to miss this!” or “this riff at ?:?? is going to be with me ‘til the day I die!”. But I can’t. Still, it’s a beautiful blur while it’s happening.


You can pick up a digital copy here and a CD/LP copy here.

Band info: Facebook