Gorefest - Rise to Ruin

People in their early 30’s perhaps might remember the identity crisis that affected some of the most exciting Metal bands a dozen of years ago. Most notable case was Metallica, whose countless hours seeing Bonanza and other westerns-alike have sparked their interest in dabbling with country music. It also happened with Carcass, whose lyrics were once very useful to medicine students as they accurately described the bowels and other entrails of the human body and all of the sudden discovered that Neil Young was THE MAN and pursued the spirit of rocking in a free world. Holland’s Gorefest is another name featured in that long list, as their Brutal Death-Metal have once threatened to become the music every dad, whose acne-teenager days were spent listening to records by Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy et al might fall in love with. If it weren’t for the cookie-monster vocalisations of bassist/vocalist Jan-Chris De Koeyer, their turning-point album “Erase” would found its place on the Hard-Rock shelf in your favourite record store. Well, explanations for such changes are numerous and although the harsher, conservative critics among you would cry out the words “sell” and “out”, I believe it has something to do with growing old. Ageing tends bring a different perspective towards most things in life and calm the savage beast of the rebellious youth; therefore we get more mellowed with age.

So it puzzles me a bit that after a six-year hiatus, during which they’ve found regular jobs, constituted family, changed diapers, taken the dogs to the vet and etc, Gorefest are still capable of creating a storming Death-Metal sound like they were 23 again. See, with “Rise to Ruin”, the follow-up to their comeback album “La Muerte”, GOREFEST have probably made one their fastest and heaviest albums so far and show no signs of the onset of age (Damn, I’m mistakenly giving the wrong idea that Gorefest are the Rolling Stones of Death Metal).
Combining the unmistakable roar of De Koeyer, whose words scrutinizes the problems confronting modern society, the monstrous drumming of Ed Warby with the massive and groovy guitar work of Frank Harthoorn and Boudewijn Bonebakker, “Rise to Ruin” synthesizes the fierce strength of their early works with the sense of melody of “Erase” and when compared to its predecessor “La Muerte”, sees the intensity and quality levels being raised a notch or two. Gorefest’s definitely back on track! (7/10)

Band info: www.gorefest.nl
Label info: www.nuclearblast.de