By: Hunter Young
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 29/08/2015
Label: Independent
Girra plays a gothic form of blackened doom, and they play it effectively. Their tones, bleak and unflinching, wash like a tide with their almost clanging rhythms, over a very melancholic flat sounding drum beat. It sounds like the beating of a rotted gourd made into an instrument.
‘Girra’ DD track listing:
1). Nunfucker
2). Throqu Shagrat Baradur
3). The Demon’s Hole
4). Crimson Circle
The Review
Bandcamp, a bastion for independent and smart labels/bands, has once again delivered unto us, a missive from the gods: ‘Girra’ by Girra. The 4 song journey into heavy as hell plodding, thrumming, and esoteric metal escalation, that shakes even the deepest of musical bedrocks and will give even the most jaded of listeners and fans a reason to delve back into the newer playgrounds.
Girra starts their S/T album with the awesomely monickered ‘Nunfucker’, which also extends for a whopping 11 and half minutes, showcasing a beautiful ear for detail and exploration and mutation within a song. The track starts clean and clear, gently morphing into heavier style and adding a bit more roundness to the sound with more instruments coming into play. It meanders through the first 5 minutes, amongst pastures tinted with a darker palette, until, at 5:10, their true color bleed into the picture. Girra plays a gothic form of blackened doom, bordering on funeral Doom, and they play it effectively. Their tones, bleak and unflinching, wash like a tide with their almost clanging rhythms, over a very melancholic flat sounding drum beat. It sounds like the beating of a rotted gourd made into an instrument. The most depths come from their bass section, thrumming with a black depth that gives form to the sound. It's beautiful in the same way a wreath at a friends funeral is.
The next song, ‘Throqu Shagrat Baradur’, picks up the pace and gives a bit of a deep breath to the album. The vocals, scathing and scraping against the ear, are dry and huskily shouted, as if the dead were to shout at you. And then they absolutely destroy with some savage riffery, sending you into a shock as black metal makes its welcome appearance and slams into your ear drums. The mix is perfect, you hear every strum, without it getting muddy or losing the thread of the song, and still get those walls of guitars coming at you. Girra loves to throw the listener around with hi-lo combinations and some heavily modulated signal use, somewhat akin to Gojira's last couple offerings. ‘The Demon's Hole’, experiments with almost a gothic metal beginning, using a cleaner approach and a very depressed tone/playing style, and then right back into their brand of doom. They even manage to throw in another riff session towards the end of the track, coupled with feedback over another riff section at the very end. Closing with ‘Crimson Circle
Topping the music off is an impressive cover art, depicting classic pointy faced demons with pitchforks and huge grins poking at cauldrons of the damned within a stone archway, all in a disturbing red color inversion. It is the perfect balance of traditional art married to the madness that lies within the human soul.
‘Girra’ is available here
FFO: Keeper, Gojira, Primitive Man,
