By: Anders

Posted: Dec 13, 2005

Yet an old and legendary band has returned to the living, the Dutch death metal masters Gorefest started out as death metal champions, and then slowly turned to a more progressive rock n' roll side of the game, and more or less released a more rock than death metal album as their last, before they disbanded in 1998. Though they are now back with "La Muerte", the death, and the album is certainly a display of death metal, even though there still are traces of good old rock n' roll here and there.

Good and catchy compositions, good and raw guitar riffs, very raw to be honest and well-sounding, they paint the base of the music and rips the spinal chord out of the weak. When listening to all the great guitar work on this album, and the compositions as such, it's sad to think of how long time the band has been away from the scene, when they still have as much to offer as they have. There are all from slow churning riffs, slowly grinding their way into the mind of the listener, to faster and more vivid work, a great blend of paces and styles. The compositions are pretty varied as well, blasting drums here and more mid-play there, many good pace shifts and breaks, without losing track of the good song and the red threads. The raw growl, very guttural but well pronounced, and more sung than growled as such, and it doesn't take many listens to before one are able to hear the lyrics.

The well-weighed production on the album is very fitting and compliments the music really good and adds a bit on top of the already doomy atmosphere present in some of the tracks. The guitar tones and output are also really good and comes clean through, despite the rawness. The drums are placed nicely in the mix as well, and get their work done really well.

I think this pretty much is a hit or miss record, old fans of Gorefest will for the most part enjoy this feast of brutal and hardhitting yet atmospheric death metal, with all the good deeds of the band. There are a nice deal of rock elements here and there, I wouldn't call this death n' roll, more like death n' sleaze due to the rawness, straight forwardness and the "we are here to conquer again and don't give a fuck" attitude! A really enjoyable death metal album with much more to offer than the average death metal band, Gorefest still have their progressive edge intact and damn the old men still know how to rock the world!

Rating: 8/10

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