I can be quite short and concise about this release. Why? Because this might be one of the most amazing surprises lately.
But first things first; and then I am talking about some dry information. Gorging Shade is a new project with members that are involved in progressive or avantgarde-oriented acts such as The Universe Divide (no idea whether they are still active actually), Canvas Solaris, Agalloch and Plague Psalm. With this outfit, these guys (Chris Rushing, Hunter Ginn, Nathan Sapp and Gael Pirlot) seem to explore comparable territories of experimentation and outsider-thinking creativity (cf. the aforementioned combos these pretty human being are involved with), yet being drenched into a suffocative fog of Blackened Death Metal laden nastiness. Indeed, no purely instrumental play this time, yet their own-faced representation of post-dynamic, future-progressive and dissonant Death Metal.
Before going over to the aural content: this material is digitally available via the band’s Bandcamp-page (link: see below), yet there’s a very limited vinyl-edition as well (12”). It comes on ‘normal’ black vinyl, with ironic yet impressive cover artwork. I have no idea whether a compact disc edition will follow, or a vinyl reprint, for the first badge was printed on an edition of only eighty (80) copies. Anyway, it’s a self-release with no label involved, yet it won’t surprise me (at all) if there’s a smart label around with the intelligence to sign a contract - but that’s another story…
Inversions, this Atlanta, Georgia-based guys’ debut, consists of seven lullabies, clocking almost forty minutes. As from the first seconds of opener The Mass Of Entropy, one might experience a high-leveled craftsmanship from these music(k)ians. They do perform with a stunning technical creativity, redefining a timeless tradition with an insightful progressive execution. It is remarkable how ‘easy’ it seems to have such intense and quite brutish nastiness combined with a mostly elegant performing finesse. Everything just fits: the well-balanced interplay of all instruments and voices, the sometimes unpredictable tempo-changes and sudden breaks, and the equilibrium of an old-schooled performance at the one hand, and a modernistic, somewhat grinding atmosphere at the other hand. The guitar riffs combine known techniques as well as a masterly deep-thought discordance, with shrieking leads, mind-blowing solo-work (just listen to the last sequence of the opener to understand Gorging Shade’s symbiosis of madness and intelligence), post-melodious harmonies, and tactically perfected haunting riffing. Whether it’s slow-paced, mid-tempo or lightning-driven, these strings act like a canvas of creativity and illusion. Of undeniable importance are the percussions; I mean, the whole drum-section pushes the whole story, like a bulldozer, or an avalanche, towards the highest peaks of comprehension, whether it’s slow and pulsating or rather erupting and devastating. And then, those vocals: a rabid boar’s snarl just fades away compared to these abyssal growls. …oops, I wanted to have this review short and concise, and I am still analyzing the opener The Mass Of Entropy…
Anyway, that first track is just an example of what Inversions stands for. Worth mentioning too, when talking about the whole album, are the hints of Black Metal (with a few blackened screams) (pay attention: I wrote ‘hints of’, for this band does not offer ‘Black Metal’ an sich, yet Gorging Shade inject the whole with some smoothly generated obscured seizures), jazzy elements (like in some bass-driven pieces, or percussion-technique-wise), the use of bombastic, ambient-oriented passages (the outro on Disease Of Feeling, Germed, adding a sphere of glorious epicism, is a fine example) and acoustic fragments (such as the opening sequence of Clepsydra or the final setting of aforementioned Disease …), some victorious fragments (here too sometimes with additional keyboards, yet I recommend to immerse into the ‘grande finale’ of A Concession Of Our City To Modernity), and… Well, I can go on, but you get the morbid picture, I guess.
As said, the whole is enormously technical, with conflicting structures, apoplexic breaks and dissonant textures. Then again, fortunately, the progressive approach lacks pathetic exaggeration or unnecessary extremities, which is appreciable. Kudos and stuff, you know. That’s also the reason why pseudo-Badalamenti fragments do work. Ordeal Of The Bitter Water, for instance, is like a cinematic intermezzo, yet seen the proficient song-writing that covers, or surrounds, the whole adventure, such ‘different’ composition organically fits as one sequacious individual chapter within a cohesive totality.
Finally a word about the sound-quality. I have no idea who was responsible for production, mix and things, but he / she / they (it?) did a great job. The result is very ‘full’ in sound, lacking irritating background noises, yet also lacking a superficial of superfluous pseudo-clinical tedium. I do appreciate the rough-polished surface, smoothly scrubbed at its edges, for it intensifies the overall concept.
https://gorgingshade.bandcamp.com/album/inversions