The bulk of what you read on this site is generated from people clubbing my inbox to death with promos, which I actually really appreciate despite the tone of this sentence. I need to manage that better. But now and again, we see something we are intent to track down because it’s something we really want to hear, so we’ll harvest whatever music we can.
One of those albums is “Loss of Light,” the debut from Boise, Idaho-based crunchers Ghorot, who pledge to worship at the altars of sludge, doom, stoner, and black metal, and they definitely achieve that goal on this punishing five-track, 40-minute record. I was initially interested due to the involvement of guitarist/vocalist Chad Remains, who previously plied his trade in criminally underappreciated Uzala, and his partners here in Carson Russell (bass/guitar/vocals) and Brandon Walker (drums/vocals) help helm a power trio that is unstoppable. This is a sooty, blackened, psychotic good time as the band hammers you with great darkness, crushing riffs, and vicious vocals that batter you completely. It’s a really great record, one I have been visiting over and over.
“Harbinger” starts the record by heating up with an absolutely killer riff that snakes around you, swaggering as the growls begin to pummel. The playing begins to twist steel as a doomy cloud thickens and threatens, and a savage burst launches fireballs into the sky as the finish simmers in soot. “Charioteer of Fire” lets steam rise as an extended introduction allows the band set the stage, which is burning out of control. Riffs stomp as the melody enraptures you as the howls emerge, scraping off strips of flesh as we delve into heavy psychedelic waters. Hypnotic jolts shake your foundation as the soloing bathes in lava, churning hard, emerging out of a strange fever dream and ashing away.
“Woven Furnace” delivers bubbling guitars as the pace pummels, and the vocals mash hellish growls and muscular shrieks into one ugly package. Punishing chants are unleashed and get your blood moving, ushering in violent thrashing, power that leaves bruising, and a snarling assault that drowns out in noise. “Dead Gods” basks in slicing guitars and vocals that stoke the flames, bringing a plodding and pounding tempo to their accumulating pile of bodies. Growls echo in your head as your psyche is sliced open, the guitars spread their black wings, and a heavy shadow covers all, charging and stabbing out. “In Endless Grief” is your closer, a 12:26-long crusher that slips in and out of darkening mood as the vocals dice into your mind. The guitars melt rock as a heavy haze situates above you, letting noise accumulate and damage, with anguish running amok. The playing gets burlier, smoke fills the room as the soloing attracts heat lightning, and the final moments flatten and leave you in the dirt.
Ghorot’s full-length debut “Loss of Light” is about four years in the making, and it’s a barnstormer, an album I was really looking forward to hearing. My expectations were high going in, and they all not only were met but surpassed, as this is a band who I’m really excited to hear develop over the years. This thing will burrow into your psyche, set up shop, and wreck you, leaving your entire mind overwhelmed.
For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/ghorot
To buy the album (digital, vinyl), go here: https://ghorot.bandcamp.com/album/loss-of-light
Or here (CD): https://www.inverse.fi/shop/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=940&osCsid=0d2ee1eec5a9a69bfbbfce61546aa55b
For more on the label, go here: https://www.inverse.fi/
Meat Mead Metal 