Lurking about in the darkness, a bluesy bassline seems to follow a funereal beat like it’s leading the way straight into the pits of a hell occupied by the most sinful of sonic experimentalists to walk the earth. We’re alone, isolated with the leering textures and threatening tempo breathing down our necks in “Luminaries,” but as the bass drones on and a fleeting vocal shrouded in an aural haze press forward in this track, the strange harmony Gorazde are forming here becomes rather hypnotic to say the least.
BANDCAMP: https://gorazde.bandcamp.com/album/the-fury-of-lullabies
It won’t be long before the industrial-style groove of “Summer Bliss, Feature Mist” has seeped through the silence and replaced the blue-hued beats with something a lot more danceable, but if you think catharsis exists here or anywhere else in the new album The Fury of Lullabies, you’re in for a lusty – but still quite uncouth – awakening in Gorazde’s new album. Simply put, in an age of psychedelic revivals that has seen everyone from the hardest rappers in the south to the most eclectic singer/songwriters in the northwest embracing some strain of cerebral craftsmanship, Gorazde is presenting a heavier strain of thought-provoking music in The Fury of Lullabies that no music fan can afford to ignore.
The guitar parts purge a lot of angst in “Orison,” the Bad Seeds-reminiscent “Kiss the Murderous Beak,” and record-opening “Last Movement,” but I think the synth is the real anti-harmony hero in this LP. The percussion is largely responsible for cultivating the tension beside the melodic componentry as opposed to simply creating a pace for songs like the abstract “Until the Stars Bleed” and “Summer Bliss, Feature Mist,” which frees up the vocal to be as virtuosic as our singer sees fit. There isn’t a lot of indulgence to be found in this record, but that said, the decadence of the lyricism in even the simplest of compositions had a big impact on my first session with The Fury of Lullabies. “Incubavit” is one of the most provocative poetic efforts here, describing burning shadows and carnal sexual sadisms in a manner that seems strikingly spiritual by the time we reach the finish line in the song. It’s definitely NSFW, but it’s intensely gratifying to listen to if you like true experimentalism in the studio as much as I do.
DISTRO KID: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/gorazde/projections
While I only just familiarized myself with Gorazde in 2021, I think that their third album is a bar-raising release for both the band and the scene they’re a part of right now. The blood of Earth, Melvins, Boris, and Danzig pumps heartily through the veins of this LP, but at the same time, I think it’s almost a bit dismissive of the originality of The Fury of Lullabies to compare it to the works of other artists to come before Gorazde. Overall, this is a tantalizing treat for fans of heavy music who aren’t satisfied with the recycled concepts a lot of Southern Lord artists have been throwing to the listeners like chum off the back of a fishing boat in the last few years, and I think it’s going to do very well with longtime experimental music buffs with exceptionally high standards when it comes to new content.
Chadwick Easton