Toronto’s own Gutvoid have returned with another offering of Canadian Death Metal, this time on the mighty Profound Lore Records. Their sophomore effort, entitled ‘Liminal Shrines’ is a longer listen when compared to most Death Metal albums, clocking in just short of 50 minutes, but with the amount of dynamic layers here, the length is certainly warranted. Having familiarity with the band’s previous full length ‘Durance of Lightless Horizons’ brought excitement to see where the band journeyed in the four years since, and what stories they intend to tell on ‘Liminal Shrines’.
Without surprise, Gutvoid masterfully navigates the ever treacherous waters of innovation, memorability and brutality. The push and pull between fist pumping riffs, progressive leaning guitar leads and layered atmospheric instrumentation is a beautiful thing to listen to. As with any great Death Metal record, the drumming acts as the backbone to all of the other layers stacked on top of it. DW Lee flexes technical prowess and groove throughout the listen and expertly lands fills and ghost hits to add a much appreciated level of musicianship and dynamic that most modern drumming lacks.
The modern production that Gutvoid leverage on ‘Liminal Shrines’ really accents all of the top notch musicianship from the Canadian 4 piece, providing a clean canvas that they can display their chops on without any of the fine details that are sewn within the album getting lost in a muddy production space. Those who chose the long listen will find that the further the record goes, the more interesting things get, with accenting features such as clean vocal layers, acoustic guitars and synth further down into the back half of the record.
Without ever leaving the first 3 songs on the record, I found myself humming lead passages on the repeat end and going back for more. This holds true for the entirety of the remainder of the record. There was an endless amount of interesting material to listen to here. Be it a tastefully placed lead, vocal pattern, drum fills or classically structured hook that demands the banging of one’s skull, Gutvoid took nods from masters of the old such as Demilich and Timeghoul in their approach to ‘challenging yet catchy’ Death Metal.
At only 5 “proper” songs (‘Ruinous Gateways’ acts as an introductory song), 50 minutes of Death Metal can seem intimidating to the hesitant listener. But for those loyal Death Metal legionnaires, the reward that ‘Liminal Shrines’ provides at the end of the audial journey is certainly worth the patient investment in a front to back listen.
