Gorod
French death dealers stay tech-y without slaughtering the soul
Perhaps fans of technical death metal thought they’d heard the last of the space prophet Soracle the Minarian at the close of Gorod’s 2006 concept album Leading Vision. The emissary of “an advanced extra-terrestrial species” had—with an assist from Earth’s idiot hordes—surreptitiously provoked the collapse of human civilization and established a single utopian nation, Edaenia, atop its post-apocalyptic ruins. What could possibly be left to tell? Unless, say, the remaining earthlings came to realize the new society was a ruse by intergalactic despots to enslave them under the rubric of enlightenment—an alien-savior-turned-frenemy bummer on par with discovering “To Serve Man” was a cookbook—and fight to regain their humanity. Hence, Process of a New Decline.
A multi-album nerd mythos isn’t typically worth dwelling upon. No one has ever said, “Sure, the music on this record makes me want to massage my eardrum with a knitting needle—but it’s good literature!” The Soracle storyline, however, is actually a fairly apt metaphor for Gorod’s
continuing evolution: While Leading Vision dazzles technically—Willowtip, the French band’s U.S. label, graphically (yet accurately!) brags that Gorod riffs “truly rape the Rubix [sic] cube”—Process of a New Decline sees those breathtaking virtuoso skills wed to a rising corporeal sensibility, the supersonic arpeggiation placed in service of increasingly cohesive, dynamic songs. “It is very important for us to sound like human beings, not machines,” Gorod bassist Benoit Claus confirms. “Technique is not a goal for us. We don’t try to be the fastest or most technical band. What comes out of us frequently ends up, yeah, fast and technical, but it is part of an organic writing process that reflects us as a band, not forced.”
Listening to Gorod meld proggy/jazzy interludes onto swaggering swing tempos, or effortlessly flow soaring melodic riffage into blackened technical death metal hammering, is to believe the soul of a genre that too often resembles a Stephen Hawking theory gone awry can be reanimated—and this is by design, apparently. Alongside the usual extreme metal suspects—Death, Coroner, Carcass—Claus cites ’70s rock as a major influence on the band’s process and philosophy: “Those bands created incredible, very complex, very progressive music without losing the connection to the heart of the songs.”
Gorod’s death metal heart certainly appears to resonate: The band’s inaugural United States performance at Maryland Deathfest was met with surprising enthusiasm. “We were very touched by the welcome American metal fans gave us,” Claus says. “Many of the bands we loved and were inspired by when we were young were American bands, so for us, it was like a dream to come.” Naturally, after they saved humankind from Soracle the Minarian, showing Gorod a little hospitality was the least we could do.
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