Gory Blister: The Fifth Fury

The Fifth Fury offers listeners some of the best new technical death metal I've heard so far this year. This album is powerful, exciting, tight, fast, and brilliant. I haven't heard all of this band's albums, so I can't compare this release with all the others, but I can say that The Fifth Fury is full of energy and aggression, providing listeners with a satisfying forty minutes of blistering extreme metal. I doubt that earlier recordings are any faster or any more technically proficient. The best thing about this album, in fact, is the way this band falls into the sound of the music. In other words, the band plays together like they love what they are doing, making this album a kind of tribute to a sound and a style that is still relevant. I realize this is an entirely subjective opinion, but I'm not sure how else to say it. I've listened to this album several times and it hits me in the heart and the head every time. For any readers who are even mildly curious about this band, check out the second half of the album and listen to the way the band plays off of the elements of progressive technical death metal and makes them their own.

Gory Blister, of course, has been making music since the early 1990s and knows what to do. Sure, the band has seen a pretty typical number of lineup changes (mostly in bass players and vocalists) but the band itself has been doing this for a very long time. In an earlier review of this band, I suggested that it would be nice to know how popular they are in the United States. I'm still curious. I rarely hear metal fans talking about this band, including those who love bands like Death and Nile, two of the very best bands of this kind. Maybe I'm just hanging around the wrong crowd, but so far as I can tell, things need to change. Gory Blister is easily one of the best technical death metal bands out there and deserves a fair hearing by an increased number of fans.

The best tracks on this album are those that show off how fast and tight this band is. I'm thinking of "Toxamine" or "Devouring Me," but those aren't the only ones I could name. Things get even better with the title track "The Fifth Fury," a song that warrants a listen for the guitar solo alone. I've already recommended the second half of this album. To me, tracks 5-9 make this album brilliant. Yes, the other tracks are terrific, but the album closes things out like a boxer who wants to bloody up his opponent before knocking him out.

Some of the tracks point directly to the pioneering work of Chuck Schuldiner's last few albums with Death. In "(Meet Me) In the Mass Grave," for example, Gory Blister's guitarist Raff develops a riff that would have made Schuldiner himself proud. The song, however, is not so much a tribute to Schuldiner so much as it is a reminder that this style of extreme metal still has the potential to sound new and relevant. This track also has another strong guitar solo, my favorite on this album, but it doesn't last very long so pay attention.

For those who listen to this album from start to finish, be sure to check out the bonus track, a dark ambient offering that shows off a much mellower side of the band.

Track Listing:
1. Psycho Crave
2. Thresholds
3. Toxamine
4. Devouring Me
5. The Fifth Fury
6. Prometheous Scars
7. (Meet Me) In the Mass Grave
8. The Grey Machinery
9. Heretic Infected Orchestra (Bonus Track)

Added: July 23rd 2014
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 2286
Language: english

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