Gorefest
False

THE REVIEW

Netherlands, a land of navigators and painters; tough people who have been accustomed for centuries to battling the sea to obtain arable and habitable land. The band hails from the Zeeland region, a land of the sea indeed, and in 1992 was committed to providing a worthy follow-up to the devastating debut of the previous year; that "Mindloss" which was characterized by a completely Death Metal sound, overly excessive in its uncontrolled violence.
The singer and leader Jan Chris De Koeyer has very clear ideas to make the anticipated leap in quality for his band, revolutionizing the band's line-up by introducing a new guitarist and a new drummer. The production is once again entrusted to Colin Richardson, who just a few months earlier had worked on the new albums of Carcass and Napalm Death; the sound becomes less cacophonous and monotonous, thanks also to the excellent work of the Nuclear Blast label which in those years was a synonym for absolute guarantee (those were the days!).
From the start, there is a noticeable greater sound exploration, with the average duration of the tracks exceeding five minutes: the successful attempt by Gorefest to stay in the songs as long as possible, with an endless series of guitar riffs of unprecedented power, is evident. With a sound, in the more slowed down and Hard-Heavy parts of the tracks, that undoubtedly recalls the masterpiece of the previous year recorded by the aforementioned Carcass: that "Necroticism - Descanting The Insalubrious," an authentic cornerstone of an entire genre that in those years was seeking new ways to express itself. After the outburst of the late eighties, Death Metal indeed began to absorb outside influences to evolve into something new, with Carcass, as usual, representing the movement's avant-garde and inspiring many other groups. From this desire for renewal come the Hard-Heavy influences that add a healthy dose of groove to the deadly music of Gorefest. The Rock approach will soon start to gain followers, and the so-called Death'n'Roll will be born, finding fertile ground especially in Sweden. Mentioning "Wolverine Blues" by Entombed is obligatory, but also "Massive Killing Capacity" by cousins Dismember deserves mention, not to forget the ever-present English butchers with their "Swansong". It must be said that despite the mutation that occurred, the DNA of Gorefest remains unmistakably Dutch: indeed, the riffs are always very scratchy and particularly abrasive to our ears, very "thrashy", a characteristic found in all Death Metal bands from the land of tulips, just listen to "Consuming Impulse" by Pestilence or any song by Asphyx, but also the historical Sinister or the unknown Dissect, to realize it, some slashes leave a mark!
As for me, "False" certainly does not reach the Carcassian masterpiece of 1991, yet remains an excellent record, among the best released the following year concerning Death Metal.
With a rather eloquent title and a cover depicting drawings of Gothic Churches, armed stigmatized men, and crucifixes, it's easy to imagine against whom and what the invectives of the vocalist Jan Chris are directed. His is an extreme guttural growl: at some moments of his "singing," it really sounds like the demonic scream of a person skinned alive and put on the grill. A great calling card for someone like me who loved and continues to love such an extreme musical genre.
A few seconds of intro, followed by a cold and icy voice (another characteristic that still reminds me of Carcass): right after, you plunge straight into Hell with Jan's inhuman scream opening the dances; in fact, splitting you in two because the first track "The Glorious Dead" begins with a remarkable Death outburst, mainly supported by Ed Warby's deadly drumming; then the piece slows down, entering dark, slow territories that crush in the listening. But the truce is short, because it starts again with one of those typical Death Metal accelerations. An incredible start for an album that continues for its entire duration in the same way, with the slowed parts making the band's sound very personal and recognizable.
Before closing, I want to point out another track, for me, the pinnacle of the album: the over six minutes of "Reality - When You Die" where Colin's monolithic and bastard production comes to the forefront in all its blind fury. A fury in any case always controlled by Gorefest who want, and fully succeed, to demonstrate enormous growth compared to the debut of the previous year. A track with a Doom Sabbath-esque beginning, this time leaning on the precise and dynamic work of the two guitars; it proceeds amidst the growls of the vocalist-bassist until the song literally explodes on itself, with the double bass drum becoming the absolute protagonist before yielding the way to a new acceleration until the concluding disruption and a final turn, this time into even progressive territories: a track that I define very simply as crazy, not finding a better term.
Unfortunately, this second Gorefest record will not have a worthy follow-up; the band indeed will continue its career, embellishing its sound with too many Hard-Melodic openings to fully embrace the emerging Death’n’Roll, as already mentioned, with the subsequent album “Erase”; I keep my copy of the original vinyl, straw-yellow in color, very close: a characteristic of Nuclear Blast in that period, as several other Death bands' records also had a color different from the usual (for example, cobalt blue in "Indecent And Obscene" by Dismember").