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Gorefest: Rise to ruin

02/07/07 || Lord K Philipson

Gorefest. One of all the terrific bands we host at our forums. One of the bands who are most active at their own forum as well as on the other GD forums. A bunch of killer dudes, with a great sense of humour and wit, who take pride in interacting with the people supporting them. We like that here on GD. Actually, we applaud and encourage such behavior.

This album has already been covered here at GD by one of our writers (duh) as of a few weeks back. It got a perfect score of 10/10 and created quite a bit of controversy at the forums (you’ll need to register to be able to read what’s in that link, fucko). Is a new album worthy of getting a 10? Are there really any “10/10” albums? Well, I, for one, thought the album deserved a bit more coverage than what young Eric Wright gave it, hence why this fucken thing is now being written by your favourite wannabe hockey player, namely The Almighty Penis...

Are we biased when it comes to reviewing bands that are here, bands that have been a part of the GD legacy for a few years? Well, we fucken invited them to our sacred haven of retardation, so the fact that we’ll end up with fine reviews of our “own” bands is only natural, since we like them in the first place, unless they start to fucken suck bird-cum. But no, we aren’t biased. We don’t kiss band-ass for the reason of kissing band-ass. We don’t play that shit (unless money and crack is involved). We are first and foremost fucken fans of the bands in question, you know, and Gorefest hardly started tasting the mentioned fluids of the bird just yet. So, expect no bashing here. Coz I can’t do it. I simply like Gorefest too much. Fuck you, Boud, Ed, Frank and JC. Fuck you, Gorefest. Fuck you for being cool as shit and for releasing albums that I like, and pretty much always did.

I took a great liking in Gorefest’s last effort, “La Muerte” (seriously, if you click me you’ll grow a magic pair of balls). It was a huge fucken return to form and it had enough brutality and catchy shit to make any tr00 and br00tal fag more than satisfied. Gorefest always deliver (almost anyways, “Soul Survivor” isn’t something that I’m returning to that often, becoz it’s not really Gorefest to me with its rockish approach and therefor mostly suck Ze Grande Ballsack). What I’m trying to say here is that “La Muerte” was definitely the best album since the classic “False”.

Until now, that is.

“Rise to ruin” is most prolly the finest piece The Fest ever recorded. After countless of spins, I believe it beats both “False” and “La Muerte”. With “Rise to ruin” it feels like Gorefest unleashes their most brutal and competent effort in their career. The tune “Revolt” is right up there with the old jewel “Fear” as the best track these guys ever did. It’s a perfect opener for the album with its relentless aggression, vitality and sing-a-long chorus. The only thing that bugs me about this track is that goddamn sample-break that comes in way too early in the song, completely taking away the flow for me. But it picks up again right after that, which helps. It still irritates the fuck out of me, though. But no matter what, “Revolt” is a fantastic fucken tune and the absolute highlight of the album. I understand why they chose this one for their MyPenis page as a teaser of what’s to come.

With “Revolt” setting the standard for the album, we move on to the title track. There’s nothing like a 2-chord riff when it’s done right. Gorefest’s got it down with this one. While being more midpaced initially, “Rise to ruin” feels placed a bit too early on the album. Another punch in the face a’la “Revolt” (isn’t it about time to stop mentioning this track now? I guess you got the idea already) as track 2 would have been a better choice. The second half of the tune speeds shit up though, but still I can’t help to think it would have been better to have this one more in the middle of the album. Excellent song though, make no mistake.

“The war on stupidity” starts off with a real nice twin guitar thing and definitely makes you expect some slower stuff… But nope, after the intro all hell breaks loose and we are granted blastbeats and a full-on death metal piece. The bridge-riff is absolutely fantastic and when the song comes to a halt for about 8 seconds, and you expect a doomy break (we all know Gorefest loves those), it starts blasting again. Color me surprised! Or call me Bambi, fuck if I care. A killer tune in every sense of the word, and you know a great riff just passed you by when you actually hum it hours after you first heard it. That is the mentioned bridge-riff. Go fucken listen.

“A question of terror” definitely displays the heavier side of Gorefest, a side we have grown very accustomed to over the years. It’s not one of my fave tracks on the album but that riff at 2:30-something sure gets my head moving. If yer into guitar wankery, this tune holds tons of it. I always appreciated the quite untraditional solos of these guys and the axe’o‘rama in this one is the highlight of the song.

“Babylon’s whores” starts off blasting and once again I’m smiling about the fact that Gorefest really went for a more brutal approach on “Rise to ruin”. There’s no letting go here for the first minutes. Hearing JC growl “Nothing will be the same anymore!” while The Fest enters a slow-assed passage with guitar extravaganza de luxe sure fucken makes me wanna punch someone in the mouth out of joy. And at the time you think that this particular section’s been used enough, Gorefest heads into some clean guitar part that really throws you off. And after that; blasts and heaviness again! I’m not the one who should complain about bands writing too long songs (hey, I play in The Project Hate MCMXCIX, you know), but “Babylon’s whores” feels a bit too long with its 9 minutes, though it holds alot of nice parts. The length is its only problem.

“Speak when spoken to” is another fast death metal effort complete with some, you guessed it, blasts (Gorefest never used this much blasts on any of their previous albums and it’s a fucken welcomed addition to their sound) and trademark Gorefest riffage. Not one of the strongest tracks here either, but nonetheless a decent tune by all means. Those backingvocals (made by who?) sound really fucken killer and lifts the track.

“A grim charade” gets us started with a shit-heavy riff and mid-paced brutality. The second half of the tune heads for a faster pace and it seldom gets boring. There’s stronger material on this piece, but that’s not saying this tune is weak, far from it. Even when Gorefest creates some of their “weaker” moments, they still kick a huge amount of arse. I guess you could call it quality.

“Murder brigade”, on the other hand, is another one of those absolute killer tunes on “Rise to ruin”. Once again we are granted speed and catchy riffage. Track after track, Gorefest surprise me with, as mentioned quite a few times in this review, relentless brutality and groove. The mid-section holds a very nice guitar solo thing that reminds me of something I just fucken can’t put my finger on. Real fucken moody and beautiful shit, to say the least. Quite possibly my 2nd fave track off this gem.

Closer “The end of it all” finishes off the album in a nice fashion. There’s no technical bullshit displayed here (and technicality isn’t exactly something Gorefest would utilize if it crawled up their asses and died there), just some insanely heavy riffage mixed up with pounding double bass and a early 90’s vibe here and there, and not to forget: the occasional blastbeats. haha… Fuck did you expect? There’s a break at roughly 3 minutes into this tune that just transforms into a very nice guitar driven section with JC’s trademark lion roar declaring “The end of it all! The end of it all!”. A strong fucken ending to a strong fucken album.

Tue Madsen did a fucken incredible job with the production and the album sounds massive as fuck. It’s not as charmingly dirty production-wise as “La Muerte” sometimes felt, but I prefer this production over that one anyways thanx to the crunch’n‘punch. The only thing I wish for to be changed is some louder bass (goddamn it, always the bass issue…). The drums sound absolutely awesome and natural. Once again Ed Warby shows he’s one of the best drummers in the business and it’s a joy to listen to him behind the kit. The guitars are heavy with the best of them while still being clear enough to pick out every single note. Frank and Boud always had their own styles and dissapoint no one on “Rise to ruin”. And no matter if you love or hate JC’s vocals, they sound like they always did. Original and fitting to the music of The Fest. Those vocals sure are a huge and important part of the band.

To sum this up. As mentioned, the album (and that cover is just fucken fabulous, by the way) is a hella lot more brutal than I thought it’d be, and I’m surprised by all those blasts and the aggression shown. They definitely took the right direction here and while “La Muerte” brought them back in quite a grandiose manner, “Rise to ruin” shows that they will be sticking right the fuck around, perfecting the sound of The Fest with each and every album since the comeback a few years ago. And I love that. Gorefest is nothing remotely close to old and tired. “Rise to ruin” is the proof.

Great fucken work, ladies.

8 out of 10 on a bad day and 9 out of 10 on a great day. I simply can’t decide. That’s why this album gets a well deserved 8,5/10.

Note: I decided to include the most links ever used in a review. I also succeeded. I rule.

Note in 2012: A bunch of the links in this review are now dead. Live with it, fucko.

Information
Released: 2007
Label: Nuclear Blast
Website: www.gorefest.nl
Band
Jan-Chris De Koeijer: vocals, bass
Boudewijn Bonebakker: guitar
Frank Harthoorn: guitar
Ed Warby: drums

Tracklist
01. Revolt
02. Rise to ruins
03. The war on stupidity
04. A question of terror
05. Babylon’s whores
06. Speak when spoken to
07. A grim charade
08. Murder brigade
09. The end of it all

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