I don’t do too terribly well in oppressive heat, and I never have. There’s something about it that makes it feel suffocating and dangerous, my body panicking like there is something wrong with me physically. There’s a brutality to the heat, knowing too much of it can harm you, potentially fatally, and the only way to escape it is to try to hide from it somewhere where it can’t get to you. It’s just lurking, waiting.
Taking on blackened doom trio Ghorot’s music reminds me of that very thing, feeling like you’re being baked alive as their manic noise and gargantuan riffs weigh down on you, making breathing a competitive sport. On their crushing new record “Wound,” their second, they manage to make things heavier, nastier, riffier. As soon as the five-track record opens, you’re mangled by sonic eruption with the band—guitarist/vocalist Chad Remains, bassist/acoustic guitarist/vocalist Carson Russell, drummer/vocalist Brandon Walker—piling layer upon humid layer of desert-like heat, the punishing thrashing you’re taking feeling even more intimidating as your fear for survival consumes you.
“Dredge” gets started with feedback scorching, growls boiling, and the doomy fire growing and raging in time. Shrieks cut through as the pressure builds, pummeling as noise peels off and takes chunks of flesh with it, eating away with acidic pummeling. The bruising continues as the riffs create thick smoke, melting with bluesy turns, ringing out into oblivion. “In Absentia” rips open with scathing riffs, a blistering force, and a rhythm section that pounds away, disassembling bodies bone by bone. The growls slither as the brutality accumulates and corrode, lashing with a devastating force that’s impossible to avoid. Leads glimmer from there, and everything melts, leaving the stench of burnt rubber behind.
“Corsican Leather” corkscrews in and immediately goes dreamy and immersive before the growls eat into your psyche. Blood runs cold just as the guitars catch fire, going for a slow-driving, yet devastating pace that aims to take you apart. Tornadic riffs land as the growls smear soot, creating an overwhelming intensity that causes the pace to drive harder, stomping to a molten finish. “Canyonlands” brings a psychedelic glimmer that slowly unfurls, whispers haunt, and the playing slithers toward its prey in calculated fashion. Shrieks then gut as the melodies boil over, the soloing laps up sweat and bile, and a hypnotic glaze grabs your attention, ending in a pit of noise. Closer “Neanderskull” guts with sound before sludgy madness digs into ribcages, slowly brutalizing with oppressive heat and banshee wails. The guitars bleed heavily and then coat with iron ore, the sounds wrench and combust, and everything ends in a panicked terror bathing in manic energy.
Ghorot’s volcanic energy is on full display with “Wound,” one of the loudest, most sonically aggravated records you’re bound to hear this year. Each of these five tracks is a pummeling journey through desert heat, a skull-dragging affair that leaves you burnt and parched. The brutality and psychedelic firepower are impossible to shake, and your bones will ache for days after the music ends.
For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/ghorot
To buy the album, go here: https://ghorot.bandcamp.com/album/wound
Or here: https://laybarerecordings.com/release/wound-lbr046
For more on the label, go here: https://laybarerecordings.com/
Meat Mead Metal 