Gorod – A Perfect Absolution

So here are Gorod once more. One of France’s greatest death metal bands. Is this another masterpiece of technical brutal death metal or just another boring death metal album? That is a question I could not answer after several auditions of “A Perfect Absolution”.

In the beginning of their career they almost forced to change their name from Gorgasm to Gorod, so they don’t get confused for the death metallers from U.S.A. Their music is of a typical technical death metal band. The craziest riffs are in here. The experimental riffs and compositions are in here too.

For the fans of this kind of death metal is a must buy. For the fans of the band itself; I think not the same. The compositions and the structure of the album are a bit different from their previous ones. The experimental are more listenable than before. The production and the vocals are cleaner than before. That is something that would come to your ears from the first second. Or maybe from the cover art; you can see that this is not the Gorod from the past years. Though I must say that the death metal sound on this CD is unquestionable.

Starting the listening of this album is easy. The intro of most Gorod’s CD is there. Then the two following songs are an overwhelming dose of technical death metal produced by Gorod. After that the melodies are clearer and the use of samples is strange to the ears of a fan. Of course the jazz funk melodies are welcome, especially on the song of “Carved In The Wind”. But the getting cleaner and cleaner vocals are – in my opinion – a mistake. The sound is also so clean that can confuse you that Gorod is a progressive metal band. The experimental sounds and riffs are very distinct on two songs mostly. These are “5000 at the Funeral” and “Varangian Paradise”. The guitar solo on the last aforementioned track reminds me of a power metal solo. And the guitar leads on the same song sounds like they came out of the music titles of a TV series. Yet the clean production on the sound of the bass was good surprise for me.

In conclusion I believe that this CD is a descent and not at all boring album for any death metaller. Unfortunately for the fans of Gorod it will make a big contrast on their feelings.