Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
It’s an interesting time for post-rock, and I don’t think you need to look much further than the new album The Fury of Lullabies by emerging heavy music titans Gorazde to know exactly what I’m talking about. Although not a straight post-rock effort in the way of Pelican, the atmospheric, ambient-influenced elements synonymous with the genre are found throughout songs like “Luminaries,” “Projections,” and the stone-cold “Kiss the Murderous Beak.” Gorazde are pretty deep underground at the moment, but with a presence like theirs, it’s hard to imagine that remaining the case forever.
“Beholden” and “Last Movement” boast quite the compelling use of anti-melodicism, but at no point would I say The Fury of Lullabies devolves into an ocean of white noise shaped by industrial beats. There’s actually a strange harmony between the vocal and the distorted synth play in “Dead Hand Path” and “Postulant” alluding to a greater relationship with the dark side of the sonic universe than a lot of this singer’s contemporaries have been able to foster. They aren’t shying away from noise componentry, but overall Gorazde’s sound is too sophisticated to be entrenched in the obtuse and obscure exclusively.
There’s definitely some live potential in “Enucleate the Third Eye,” “Orison,” and “Incubavit” that brings to mind some of Sunn O)))’s most iconic performances, which isn’t to say that the drone-esque properties of this material trump the value of the lyricism. I do have to wonder what kind of stage show Gorazde could make out of The Fury of Lullabies if they saw fit, but mostly because of the versatility within each of these compositions. “Incubavit” could play like a straight death rocker in person or just as easily like a visceral display of aural carnage completely devoted to the exploitation of noise rather than rhythm.
DOWNLOAD LINK: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/gorazde/projections
I love the fluidity of this record, and despite some of the more rigid compositional moments in “Dead Hand Path,” “Until the Stars Bleed,” and “Distant Spirals,” I think the mashup of diverse influences in this tracklist actually makes it more listenable rather than less. There’s something to be said about an album as far-reaching aesthetically as this one is that also plays as smoothly as The Fury of Lullabies does even after a few listens, though I will say that those who have been listening to Gorazde up until now probably won’t be surprised by this feature.
Gorazde is an act that you need to be following if you’re into left-field emissions from profoundly gifted sources, and while The Fury of Lullabies is one of the more deliberately rebellious works to have come to my attention this August, this is the number one reason it hasn’t left my stereo for the better part of the last week. This is somehow meditative and menacing all at once, and even when you think you’ve heard everything Gorazde has to throw at you here, I can guarantee you haven’t. This is a Russian doll of an album, and a statement piece from a band I respect all the more now.
Babette Cook
