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Goreaphobia: Mortal repulsion

08/09/09 || Khlysty

Wow, never saw this coming…

Goreaphobia was one of the very first American death metal bands to raise its ugly mug during the late ‘80s. Coming from fucking Philly, the band produced some high-quality demos, toured a bit and, during the mid-‘90s, the members split to pursue other goals –some of them within death metal’s framework-, without ever having produced a “proper” first record. Anyway, seems that the guys decided that enough was enough, so a couple a’ years back they reformed and, now, almost twenty years after its inception, Goreaphobia unleashes to the great unwashed its first L.P., called “Mortal Repulsion”.

Look, I’ll come straight to you and tell you, that besides having heard of Goreaphobia, I’ve never listened to any of their early output. So, know, I’m coming to this record pretty “clean” and my review will be based only on what I hear and not on any of the band’s legacy (which is, anyway, pretty thin on the recording front…) or influence on newer death metal bands. And, well, what I hear is in all actuality, pretty good. As far as I can tell, the band goes for an interesting mixture of trad death with thrash and melodic elements. This means, at least to me, that the twelve songs crammed into the cd are pretty groovy, with interesting and conceptually sound tempo- and scale-changes and, while not always linear, they develop in ways that are most enjoyable to these ears.

Also, Goreaphobia hold quite a few surprises for the listener. For example, the third track (“Negative Screams (Passage Intro)”) is a melodic instrumental waltz, albeit slathered from top to bottom with guitar noise and scronks, making for an eerie interlude. This is followed by the mid-tempo straight-up rocking “Grave Plagued Planet” which will have you headbanging yet little hearts out. And, while most songs stay within the four-to-five-minutes timeframe, the band doesn’t shy away from the epic song-lengths, as it does with “The Inevitable Punishment/Faded Into Ends (Part II)”, which goes for almost 8-and-a-half minutes, without never becoming boring or redundant, as the riffs are well-arranged so as to keep the tension and almost-power metal feel of the song intact for the whole of its length. And with a coda of guitar fuckery and space-sounding effects at around the 4:30 mark and a total tempo change, things get even more interesting.

Production-wise the record is pretty ace, with my only gripe being that the vocals seem to come to upfront for their own good (not that they’re bad or something; their raspy nature and almost-indelibility are ok). The guitars move with ease from the low end of the spectrum to higher pitched sounds and the drums presence is heard and –on higher volumes- felt pretty good. The drummer is also quite groovy and adaptable to the velocity-variable needs of each song, whether playing speedy doop-chick passages, or grooving down to some quasi-breakdowns (check out “A Grievous Curse”). Anyway, to make a long story short, while this could’ve been a nostalgia-filled venture about the “good ole days”, Goreaphobia have created a record that, while not genre-defining or envelope-pushing, is full of good ideas, cleverly developed and professionally executed. So, good for them and –even better- good for us.

Information
Released: 2009
Label: Ibex Moon Records
Website: Goreaphobia MySpace
Band
Chris Gamble: bass, vocals
Alex Bouks: guitars, effects
Jim Roe: drums, percussion

Tracklist
01. Ordeal of The Abyss
02. Amulet of Damnation
03. Negative Screams (Passage Intro)
04. Grave Plagued Planet
05. Primal Nothingness
06. Faded Into Ends (Part I)
07. Despised and Ruined
08. Black Ash Eyes
09. A Grievous Curse
10. Ascending Into Vices
11. The Inevitable Punishment/Faded Into Ends (Part II)
12. Mortal Repulsion

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