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Gevurah – Gehinnom

gevurah – gehinnom

Info

‘Gehinnom’ is the second album by Montreal based avant-garde duo Gevurah, released six years after their debut ‘Hallelujah!’ By and large, Gevurah remained themselves, however, it looks like A.L. and X.T. were scared themselves of what they did on ‘Hallelujah!’ so they lost their totalitarian dissonant steam. Or, more likely, they got fed up with being constantly compared to Deathspell Omega and other French avant-garde artists and decided to go their own way. At least Gevurah became more careful, prudent and practical in their use of dissonance.

In general, ‘Gehinnom’ is tailored according to the patterns of ‘Hallelujah!’, including a short lyrical instrumental somewhere in the middle of the album (‘LV 16:22’ versus ‘Lifting the Veils of Da’at’) and a closing piece, unusually sombre in its solemnity (‘Gloria in Excelsis Deo, Et Ira ad Homines in Terra’ versus הַלְּלוּיָהּ, i. e. ‘Hallelujah’). In addition, Gevurah still has a clear preference for the blast beat wall of sound. They slow down not very reluctantly, as if just out of pure necessity to take a breather and to amaze the listener’s imagination with their weird (including dissonant) passages into the bargain. ‘Gloria in Excelsis Deo…’ demonstrates this feature very clearly: here Gevurah are diligently beating the same blasting rampage (not always articulated) for quite a long time, as if they are some kind of orthodox Black/Death Metal (Blackened Death Metal) band.

But compare ‘Gloria in Excelsis Deo…’ with ‘Hallelujah’ in terms of music. It’s not about it’s shorter (13:08 versus 19:47), well, it will be about the same if you throw out a pretentious Gregorian chant sample, whereas now Gevurah use their own anthemic singing with a clear voice to create the atmosphere, which is of course much better than using samples. Compared to the dissonant nervousness of ‘Hallelujah’, this song is, loosely speaking, a digestible mixture of Black/Death Metal (Revenge, for example) and Swedish Black Metal (Marduk, for example). Yes, there are plenty of interesting elements here, it will just suffice to mention beating a weird tune on a cymbal. But we’re not talking about that. There are “atonal explosions” here too, of course, but now they are only embellishments, while, for example, the third “Un feu indomptable” on ‘Hallelujah!’ consisted of almost half of these effects.

Also listen to the mentioned instrumentals in a row: ‘LV 16:22’ compared to ‘Lifting the Veils of Da’at’ is a piece completely in the spirit of Christ Agony without unconcealed dissonances, it’s just a phlegmatic vignette. And if we compare the following respectively ‘Memento, Homo…’ and ‘Temple Without Form’ in hot pursuit, then ‘Memento, Homo…’ undoubtedly has a softer atmosphere. There is suspense in it, but there is not so much painful nervousness, so even a blast beat attack does not seem like a collapsing cosmic horror.

Not only the quantity, but also the quality of dissonances has changed. Check out the dissonant opening riff of ‘Gloria in Excelsis Deo…’: it’s not as flamboyant as most of the similar passages on ‘Hallelujah!’, nevertheless it is no less successful in creating a surprisingly icy tension for the final attack – you need to choose the right moment for dissonance, otherwise it will be a mere heap of atonal sounds.

Paranormal slowed-down bridges scattered throughout the songs became more melodic, if we may say so in relation to Gevurah. For that matter, we hear only one obvious slow dissonant passage in the spirit of Deathspell Omega on ‘Gehinnom’ – in the finale of the fourth ‘Towards the Shifting Sands’ (first it tried to prove itself on a blast beat). Needless to say, ‘Hallelujah!’ was precisely a dissonant album, in turn on the new work, Gevurah soften their dissonant plot.

In addition, they are trying with might and main to find an equivalent replacement for dissonances. As the second ‘At the Orient of Eden’ graphically demonstrates, Gevurah diversify their blast beats accompanied by tremolo-picked riffs with abrupt shifts to a higher note (the pitch of a sound is raised) or abrupt tempo changes (but insignificant). There are also unexpected short stop-start sections (‘At the Orient of Eden’, ‘Blood-Soaked Katabasis’, and ‘Towards the Shifting Sands’).

More unusual for Gevurah moves can be found on ‘Gehinnom’ as well. At the end of the third ‘Blood-Soaked Katabasis’ a melodic solo unexpectedly enters to the accompaniment of fast-paced dissonant guitar picking – it seems to have come from another music, from another genre. However, it performs its function properly – a very beautiful ending. Another unusual passage is contained in ‘Memento, Homo…’: a groovy mid-tempo rhythm with dissonant guitar picking is suddenly replaced by a short downstroke riff supported by a drum ruffle – a pattern in the vein of ‘Blood Fire Death’ by Bathory breaks the creeping suspense, but there really is something in this unexpected maneuver.

Yes, one thing Gevurah have no trouble with is suspense. It’s everywhere on this album too. Already the first track/intro ‘Gehinnom’ shows that Gevurah are dons when it comes to suspense: they manage to raise the degree of the atmosphere, building upon a banal acoustic guitar picking, a bit sentimental. Seriously, such a pattern from the repertoire of 80s thrash metallers was simply unthinkable on ‘Hallelujah!’

Summary. Most likely, ‘Gehinnom’ is just a transitional phase for Gevurah, and truly speaking, this is not a very active search for a new original path. The duo have pushed off from one shore and have not yet reached another. Anyway, that’s a good thing for starters. As for the fans of the previous Gevurah, they should also be satisfied.

Gevurah

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