By all that is unholy and brutal, we finally have the follow up to the 2015 slab Savage Land by the throwback titans, Gruesome! Keeping with the influence of the early Death sound aesthetic, Gruesome slays this album with riffs, sick leads, and a sonic hammer to the kneecaps as they sink their teeth into your yielding flesh!
Dimensions of Horror holds forth the sound of the late 80s, early 90s brutality of the burgeoning death metal scene, meaning fast riffs, loud, slapping drums, and guttural vocals that sound like a rock tumbler. Gruesome don’t surprise you with anything, which they did not on Savage Land either, but the sound is so on point you won’t really care if you are a fan. You already know the form, you have all the old tapes, and probably the original denim. This is your jam! Staccato riffing is your white noise when combined with some downtuning and slightly muted sound production.
Dimensions of Horror cracks open it’s peering otherwordly eye with Forces of Death, a sub 4 minute romp through mid tempo (at first)/sprinting metal fury. It’s machine gun picking and scalding vocals are only going to whet your appetite for what’s to come, as it’s almost a dead ringer for the early genre form. Skipping forward, Raped By Darkness doesn’t allow for much rest, combining it’s speed and harmonics with the lovely lyrics of darkness and defilement to offend any concerned parent just like they did in the old days. Raped… also has a very sweet and searing lead section towards the end of the track, so be prepared for air guitar, maybe have some hydration and a towel or groupie nearby.
Middle parts Amputation and Hellbound are pretty much Death by Numbers, but hold up well with how they are done, just lack notability or departure from what Gruesome is doing. Completely fine, as I stated before this isn’t to break any molds or do anything new. It’s the style that founded a genre, and it’s staying tightly in those ruts. However, Seven Doors, which is track 5, is my favorite on this album. It just has a sweet swagger to how they did it, makes me want to get up and actually groove to it, which was a fun part of death metal back in the day. Had a lot of fun energy to it. The album ends on the title track, Dimensions of Horror, and has a creepy horror movie theme vibe going for it. Lots of spaced out tapping and very minor sounding key, has plenty of tension and a little bit of that grooviness to it. Perfect ending to the EP.
What is a death metal album without amazing artwork and equally cool logo?! Gruesome didn’t cheap out and go the tree root or epileptic seizure drawing that most bands go for, they kept it clean with the upside down crosses in the style of King Diamond, Death, Mercyful Fate era, which is gloriously done, over a sublime cover of a summoning through a dimensional gate of an entity barely contained within our physics. In short, they nailed the whole package.
Find Gruesome’s Dimensions of Horror out on multiple platforms May 20th, 2016, at their Bandcamp (always support your bands as directly as possible!), where it is also streaming.
