Album Review: Gorguts - Colored Sounds

Gorguts Colored Sands is not your typical breed of modern death metal. Within the relentless and heavy musical chaos Canadian frontman Luc Lemay paints an intelligent lyrical landscape dealing with the current state of repressed freedom and cultural conflicts in Tibet. While it may seem to be an unusual topic it actually makes for excellent death metal fodder.

Colored Sands is quite complex musically, although this does not always translate into meaning fast. Some of the time signatures are actually reminiscent of sludge metal, and even jazz in some places. The brutal “Absconders” is an excellent example of this. The track starts slow before almost crawling to a stop and stripping everything down to a just a detuned electric guitar and drums at the 4 minute mark before all hell breaks loose a minute later with a flurry of time signature changes and blast beats. “The battle of chamdo” is a 4 minute orchestral arrangement which gives depth and contrast to the album. The thudding rhythmic assault of “Enemies of compassion” follows however, quickly unleashing the chaos once again. The closing track “Reduced to silence” doesn’t do any justice to its name, but rather ends the album on a philosophical note regarding Tibet’s future. The song features a frantic guitar solo that Chuck Schuldiner would be proud of in the last 30 seconds.

On Colored Sands Lemay has surrounded himself with some great musicians who perfectly understand the genre, and do respect the Gorguts legacy. Colored Sands is quite a lot to take in. Giving it repeated listens is a rewarding experience.

Verdict

After a 12 year hiatus Canadian death metallers Gorguts have returned with a monster concept album filled with intricate guitar riffs and brutal vocals. Led by frontman Luc Lemay (Gorguts only original member), Colored Sands is on par with the best metal albums of 2013 and does not disappoint in the slightest.