By Jason Williams
October 20th 2016, The Roxy, West Hollywood CA: What is music? By Webster’s definition: “An art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color.” It truly defines our character, soul, and human nature. Once in several years, or even several decades, we face groundbreaking music. Groundbeaking is defined as: “originating or pioneering a new endeavor, field of inquiry, or the like”. This colored inscription can be applied to Canadian avant-garde extreme metal veterans Gorguts, who erupted onto the scene in 1989, bringing their well above average death metal upon our merciful ears. They managed to truly change the playing field of how to play extreme music forever with their 1998 magnum opus ‘Obscura’, bringing forth a wide array of unrivaled dissonant harmonies, eruption of bass driven force, beautifully doomy pace, combined with a frenetic extreme death metal sound, and the world changed as we know it. Since then, and returning from a hiatus previously, Gorguts are back with a brand new EP ‘Pleiades’ Dust’, a monumental 33-minute track that truly captures the Gorguts sound, as well as ventures into new thrilling progressions and ambience. Touring alongside Gorguts were Intronaut, Brain Tentacles and Mustard Gas and Roses. The excitement level had reached dizzy heights and couldn’t wait a second longer to get to the Roxy and witness a majestic, grand metal performance.
This extraordinary metal event was definitely not the only one taking place in the Los Angeles area on this night. Within only a handful of miles, Opeth and Ghost would be playing separate shows, both sold out as well, making me more worried about the fact that Opeth fans would be more likely to attend the Gorgut show, and it remained to be seen how the attendance would be impacted.
Arriving at the venue a little after 7:40 PM, Mustard Gas and Roses would be the first and only local band opening the show. The crowd attendance thus far was fairly decent, considering the early time, and it gave me a premonition that it would much larger later on. To my surprise, ex-Isis guitarist Mike Gallagher was the sole creator and founder of this band, handling all instruments on album, with live musicians to suit. Described as an instrumental ambient band, MGR were more of a calm yet distorted style of Ambience. Gallagher’s clean tone resonated gorgeously through the Roxy’s impeccable sound system, and the crowd nodded their hands and seemingly enjoyed their set, although I would still say that Isis’s blend of atmospheric ambient metal was much more memorable. Overall, MGR were a fine opener for this evening, and I’m hoping to see them more in the future.
The most unusual and quite ecelectic band of the evening, Brain Tentacles, were second, playing to a slowly filling room. Much like MGR, the band was completely instrumental, but wonderfully diverse in their music approach, using a number of percussion instruments, horns, piano, creating a beautifully darkened and whimsical thrill. Lots of cheering and clapping along followed throughout their set, and aside from Municipal Waste drummer Dave Witte drumming ever so chaotically, the metal aspect was found more in the bombastic tension and moments in the music, not exactly in the riffs themselves. My highlight of their set, was members of Intronaut playing drum parts together on their set, hitting the drum kit with all of their might, smiles covering every face on stage, and it was a passionate sight to behold. Brain Tentacles’ mash of intense instrument playing and violent percussion rhythms made them the second greatest band of the night, and it would be an honor to witness them at the very next chance.
By the time Intronaut took the stage, the Roxy was considerably full, knowing that Opeth and Ghost were playing to 4000-plus combined, only miles away. All of the fans tonight in attendance should be commended and respected for making the best choice and giving this Gorguts show its well-respected due. Seeing Intronaut open for Meshuggah in April 2015, this time around would be a better test to gauge their live performance. No question or doubt, the musicianship was captivating to watch, especially the clean guitar passages from Dave Timmick and Sacha Dunable, both certain masters of detail, and each ring of the strings could be wonderfully heard echoing the halls and eardrums of all by the stage. ‘The Pleasant Surprise’ was the highlight of their 45-minute set, off of their latest release ‘The Direction of Last Things’. Intronaut’s style of ambience has a cheerier tone to me, and it certainly compliments the vast use of sounds and effects in their live show. And while their individual performances were engaging and impressive, the set itself felt more like a jam session, leaving the overall performance to be only a tiny bit hollow. Intronaut’s song structures felt loose and somewhat untamed, despite the professional musicianship each member had on stage. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed their set overall, and the rest of the audience enjoyed themselves as well.
Intronaut set list:
1. Fast Worms
2. Digital Gerrymandering
3. The Pleasant Surprise
4. Sul Ponticello
5. City Hymnal
6. The Welding
Chants of “Gorguts!” reigned glisteningly through the airwaves of the Roxy, and anticipation and anxiety kicked in for several in attendance. A band of such importance, influence, and wonders of talent and emotion, couldn’t help but make the calmest metal fan seem so jittery and joyfully nervous. For the next 75 minutes, Gorguts took over and commanded the venue and all that inhabited it with a dose of soaring elements of avant garde death metal. They opened their set with ‘Le Toit Du Monde’, being the first song off their last full-length album ‘Colored Sands’. As masterful as countless albums can and have been, sometimes it takes several months or longer for the music to truly flow in your veins, and as with this record, the audience knew the counterpoints, lyrics and cheering rightfully so for each clean guitar pluck stealthy hidden in the gigantic distortion and eruption. This was no one-person show on stage, do not be so foolishly mistaken. Drummer Patrice Hamelin, having played in Cephalic Carnage, Quo Vadis, and several others, eagerly assaulting his drum kit with fills and dynamic cymbal work with effortless ease. Playing in a band that has had John Longstreth on board is no easy task, and Patrice fit in quite nicely. Bassist Colin Marston filled the room with demonic bass rumblings, and knew when to shine technically, and make just enough chords to crack open the sky with its tremor-like tone. To see each member consistently makes every song and note count so easily, it was impossible to ignore.
The top highlight of this pummeling Gorguts set though, was the fantastic and colorful guitar work of Luc Lemay and his lead guitarist Kevin Hufnagel, the latter matching every note of Lemay, playing in a zone that resembled soldiers fighting for their country, honor and pride. Gifted beyond comparison, Lemay, responsible for the music, lyrical content, founding the band and the haunting growls he possesses, played every song with intense fury, including the entire ‘Pleiades’ Dust’ EP, which clocked in as one song, at 33 minutes, and was gracefully received by those in attendance. Not a moment was let up or forgotten, as time elapsed so swiftly. Remaking and performing every ambient passage, Lemay grinning ever so much in the process, feeling the passionate crowd eat up every sight, sound and soulful musical moment. For this portion of the set, including the EP and 3 songs off of ‘Colored Sands’, the fans were paralyzed in awe and wonder. However, as the last part of the set was for the older material, it went to a controlled yet enraged mosh pit, reminding the band how important the first four albums were for the extreme metal scene. ‘Inverted’ and ‘The Carnal State’ left no stone unturned, and the highlight of the set would follow, as fan favorite ‘Obscura’ served hell and chaos on a metal platter. I was in tears during this song, as it reminds me how much of that album meant to me, hearing it back in 2005. The classic opening riff that I can hum and sing perfectly to, stargazing feeling of the “strobelight” solo, as Lemay has dubbed it in the past, all showing me how metal is so essential and noble for breaking the barriers, colorful and ever changing in its own genre. Lemay greeted the fans during the older portion of the set, and couldn’t keep his smile and laughs contained, the passionate musical person and fan he has always been. ‘The Erosion of Sanity’, the title track of their 1993 record, closed this epic musical journey, and also served a reminder of what Gorguts’ original death metal sounded like before Obscura and their 2001 record ‘From Wisdom To Hate’ was brought to the masses. The set ended and everyone wondered aloud where the time went, as chants of encore and Gorguts loudly engulfed the venue. Hopefully on the next tour they can make an encore happen, as every song played by Gorguts is an honorable treat. Aside from his time on stage, Lemay also runs the merch table himself throughout the night, talks to fans, discussing the music and gladly taking pictures. The line after the show to the merch table formed with several happy fans eagerly waiting to support the band, and it was extremely well deserved.
Gorguts performed a masterful set on this fine metal evening, and tonight’s majestic set was the best show of 2016 for me, and can only hope for another, and then some, and many, many more.
Gorguts set list:
1. Le Toit du Monde
2. An Ocean of Wisdom
3. Pleiades’ Dust
4. Forgotten Arrows
5. Inverted
6. The Carnal State
7. Obscura
8. Orphans of Sickness