Harvest Gulgaltha

Album Title: 
Harvest Gulgaltha
Release Date: 
Monday, January 26, 2015
Review Type: 

Harvest Gulgaltha were formed in 2012, and they did release two recordings via Aphonic Sonance: the demo-tape I and the 12”LP Necrosophic, respectively in 2012 and 2014. That demo, originally released on cassette in a limited edition of 100 copies only, will now be re-issued by great Nuclear War Now! Productions on vinyl as teaser for the upcoming second full album.

I brings five monstrous pieces that clock eighteen minutes. And as from the opening sequence of the first track, I am totally overwhelmed. With I, Harvest Gulgaltha bring the most heavy, droning, obscure, massive and morbid Doom imaginable. There are hints of both death and Black Metal, Sludge and Post-Hardcore, but this is more. And less. Less is more… Truly, this material is primal and barbaric, haunting and hypnotic, colossal and hammering. But being ‘heavy’ is one thing, being convincing is another. But Harvest Gulgaltha do. While the first track (Infinite Black) was mainly based on slow and asphyxiating sounds of dissonant obscurity, the second one, for example, called Manifestation Of Nightmares, is mercilessly fast and uncompromising (yet still avoiding exaggerated complexity). Release The Flesh returns to the autopsian un-beauty of gore Doom-laden Death Metal with a mostly blackened edge. Woods Of Belial and Goatlord dwell around too… Limbonic Soul is even more Abscess / Autopsy / Asphyx-alike than the former pieces, and probably the most grooving piece on this EP. Scepter Of The Shadows Of Death is the most ‘experimental’ and ‘progressive’ piece on this mini-album, with quite some Drone / Sludge / Doom elements, but still maintaining the forceful and bleak attitude of the former compositions.

This is one of those bands that are able to create gargantuan material based on primal structures. Harvest Gulgaltha prove that prehistory has more to offer than modernists can dream of, once again. You guess it: I am convinced. I want more, soon!

90/100