The city is a death trap, and no matter where you go, what street you walk down, your anxiety creeps to the surface because you have no idea who or what is lurking around the bend. It feels post-apocalyptic, or it can at times even though you know that’s not really the case. But the heat, the violence, the crime, the death, it’s everywhere, and it’s enough to cost you your sanity.
My trips to NYC have been fairly uneventful, and I felt nothing but safe, but I wasn’t lurking where the members of Gravesend call home. Their incredibly violent second record “Gowanus Death Stomp,” the title inspired by a neighborhood in Brooklyn from which the band took sick inspiration, is a 16-track affair that piles death and black metal into a war-driven cauldron that aims to boil you alive. The band—vocalist/guitarist/synth player A, bassist/vocalist/synth player S, drummer G—leaves no infected stone unturned, heads down dank streets and dangerous alleys, and brings you a smoke-filled explosion that coats your lungs and pounds you into submission but still refuses to let up even a bit over 36 minutes.
“Deranged” is a buzzing intro that sounds like everything is surfacing streetside, heading into “11414” that starts sooty, heavy, and dirty. The track rips apart as the growl brawl wildly, the playing thrashing and gutting to the finish. “Even a Worm Will Turn” mangles with black fury, the track acting like a buzzsaw hungry for asphalt, the pace obliterating and windmilling forcefully into “Festering in Squalor” that boils over before maiming. There’s a monstrous burst and then blood, howls rattling as a relentless tempo takes over, destroying and stampeding to the finish. “Code of Silence” brings snarling blasts and infernal howls, the punchy assault going for broke, throwing haymakers and adding enough pressure to pop out your eyes. The title track smashes with bashing riffs and a bruising approach, the howls feeling like they’re peeling concrete off of buildings. Molten and thrashing, the vile heat makes it come off like a stinking summer you can taste. “Streets of Destitution” brings chugging guitars and total carnage trailing it. Sludgy tones mix with your blood as the bass drives hard, deep growling feeling like it’s choking you out. “Make (One’s) Bones” drives in and explodes, insanity tearing apart everything mentally and physically. The heaviness really weighs on you to near blackout state, leaving everything in dust.
“Crown of Tar” is aptly titled as that is what it feels like is dripping down your head as noises waft, voices warble, and guts are removed suddenly. The drums totally destroy as doomy guitars mar the sky, scathing howls helping usher in a brutal end. “Thirty Caliber Pesticide” is a complete assault, the playing rattling your skeletal structure, the raspy howls mixing with glimmering guitars for a strange sheen. “The Third Rail” unleashes an ultra-thick bassline, the guitars slathering and slashing, the battering turning into a calculated assault as it festers. “Mortsafe (Resurrection Men)” bursts with uncontrollable chaos and vicious howls that aim to disconnect your head from your neck. Drums splatter as the vile intentions solidify, moving into “Lupara Bianca” that is no less nightmarish. Unhinged howls decimate as the guitars blaze with glory, feeling like the oppressive heat from a basement furnace. Things only get more desperate from there, the power of this track ripping your flesh from your chest. “Carried By Six” is there and gone before you know it, growls corroding, guitars plastering, the humidity and speed making for twisted bedfellows. “Vermin Victory” is heated and thrashy, beastly growls flattening everything it confronts. Guitars then simmer in darkness, the release feeling like exhaust ripping into the fresh air, leaving you hacking and writhing. The closing “Enraged” is a strange, siren-like piece that puts a disgusting bow on the package complete with insect swarm buzz and burning oil.
While you might feel like you’re stuck on the disease-ridden, bloodied city streets when taking on “Gowanus Death Stomp,” you’re lucky it’s just how the music feels and not your reality. Gravesend’s poisonous mix of black and death metal sounds like total war against the world, fought from the grimiest place on earth. The fight will have no rules, it’ll be a painful and harrowing journey, and you’ll end up gasping fumes and feeling the rot in the center of your heart.
For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/warforgravesend
To buy the album, go here: https://www.20buckspin.com/collections/gravesend
For more on the label, go here: https://www.20buckspin.com/
Meat Mead Metal 