Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Album Review: "Dimensions of Horror" by Gruesome

Dimensions of Horror
After nearly four years of writing at Glacially Musical, oftentimes I must confess myself overwhelmed what I have been able to accomplish.

Until very recently, it was only me writing here. (Big thanks to Danny for coming on board and we're really enjoying his contributions as well.)

Because of the smallness of the staff here, mistakes are made.

My personal goal is to bring music to your ears that you may not have heard otherwise. In doing that, there's a lot of guesswork, homework, and just plain work to do.

Gruesome debuted last year with Savage Land and after listening to a bit of it, I passed on reviewing it. Their follow up, Dimensions of Horror, arrived to me today. Knowing full well mistakes were made on their first album, it became today's work to listen and review their sophomore release.

Gruesome
Let's get one thing as clear as an unmuddied lake, an azure sky, etc. I was wrong to pass on Gruesome's debut. Upon hearing it later, it was clear that I screwed up.

That being said, their follow up was not going to go unspun to ensure the same mistake was not made. Learn from history, don't repeat it.

Dimensions of Horror has a level of maturity and sophistication that their debut was lacking.

Songwriting in death metal is always a bit tricky, because it has to be scary, metal, brutal, and hopefully sound like a song as well.

Their riffing is masterful. There is no amount of superlatives that could be heaped on the guitars on this record that would ever suffice. They just have to be heard.

These solos are played at such a breakneck speed, I'm pretty sure Maverick couldn't go this fast.

It would have to be dangerous to stand next to the guys as they blow out these leads. They're not only fast, but melodic and technical. Pure death metal perfection.

All this album is missing is bit more volume on the blast beats. We need to feel that.

Between amazing riffs, perfect grooves, and just the right amount of growl and inarticulation in the vocals, Dimensions of Horror raises the bar for Gruesome.

Vinyl worthy.

Release: 5/20/16
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Relapse Records
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