The universe is massive and terrifying, and we have no idea what’s really out there. Think of all the monsters and beasts you’ve dreamt in your mind. How do you know something like that doesn’t exist somewhere beyond our world, waiting to strike? Those possibilities have informed heavy metal, and it’s made our imaginations more deranged.
There are few bands as responsible as Gigan for conjuring mind-altering visions in their brand of death metal. For the past 12 years, this force has delivered five full-length albums, the latest being “Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus,” that delve into the horrors of the cosmos, but in a way that’s as fascinating as it is brutal. On this new album, the band—mastermind/multi-instrumentalist Eric Hersemann, vocalist Jerry Kavouriaris, drummer Nathan Cotton—pours 47 minutes of space horror death metal over eight tracks that continually whisk you to other places and immediately terrify you with that you see and hear. Yet, in the end, you’ll have had an adventure that will capture your mind.
“Trans-Dimensional Crossing of the Alta-Tenuis” opens in total darkness, a stirring atmosphere greeting chugging guitars that crush worlds. The monstrous pace explodes into spacey leads, the soloing going off toward the outer rim. Growls engorge as the playing explodes, and then we’re on to “Ultra-Violet Shimmer and Permeating Infra-sound” that’s a bettering ram at the start. A strange aura floats as guitars tease, bizarre streaks disarming, the playing spiraling and reverberating toward a disruptive end. “Square Wave Subversion” opens with trampling guitars and zany playing, the growls menacing as the roars explode. Guitars leave the surface and begin a deep exploration, weird zaps making your brain surge, the jolts removing guts. “Emerging Sects of Dagonic Acolytes” flattens the mind with disarming sounds landing, the steam rising from a developing miasma. Alien-drenched growls slither, a cosmic stretch making the search for oxygen nearly pointless, going into a trampling assault that sizzles closed with fire.
“Katabatic Windswept Landscapes” opens with spiraling guitars, snaking and boiling in the guts of the universe, howls crushing every being along the way. A spacey sheen drips silver as destructive energy lands body blows, guitars peel off, and the landing is fiery and violent. “Erratic Pulsitivity and Horror” barrels through, the pace pummeling and tearing, growls ripping a hole in time. The playing engorges, drama dashing and terrifying, a menacing and beastly power rising and driving to a manic finish. “The Strange Harvest of the Baganoids” have the guitars instantly going into psychedelic terrain, blistering as the growls grab your throat and squeeze, the melodies digging in and pushing past other worlds. The playing ruptures and chews terrain, the space buzz returning to the death growls, a strange haze rising and crash landing. Closer “Ominous Silhouettes Cast Across Gulfs of Time” spews down-tuned madness, sounds boiling and creating a cosmic corrosion, heat rising from the surface. A metallic gust melts into a sound wash, intergalactic beams bringing grim death, shrieks destroying as the ungodly heaviness increases pressure and warps gravity.
Gigan’s death metal universe is both self-contained and exploding over into our own world, which is why it’s always exciting and a little unsettling when they dream up new material. “Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus” is a mouthful to say and another bizarre journey to experience, and all the while you’ll be battered senseless. Even as cosmic death metal morphs into something new, this band reminds of when this style was more brutal and fantastical, something to which Gigan always commit fully.
For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/Giganmusic/
To buy the album, go here: https://www.willowtip.com/bands/details/gigan.aspx
For more on the label, go here: https://www.willowtip.com/home.aspx
Meat Mead Metal 