Gorgasm - Orgy of Murder

Ever since I first really got into the whole brutal death and grindcore scene, Putrid Pile, Cephalotripsy, Disgorge, Defeated Sanity, and Gorgasm are among the band names that keep popping up. Although I’m not a fan of all of these, they all seem to be a pretty big deal. So since Gorgasm was one of the ones I didn’t look up immediately those years ago, so I decided now was a good time. The majority of the big dogs in the realms of slamming brutality seem to each have their own special uniqueness about them (i.e. Nile, Hate Eternal, Devourment, Aborted, Defeated Sanity, Cryptopsy, Suffocation, Guttural Secrete, etc.), which is probably the reason why they’re more successful than the average band of their genre. But you can’t have bands like these without a strong set of generic bands that stick to the traditional style of the genre. That’s where the leading bands like Pathology, Putrid Pile, and Disgorge come in. After listening to Orgy of Murder several times, it’s become apparent that Gorgasm is part of the leading group of generic brutal death metal bands.

Formed in 1994, Gorgasm have released three albums, each under a different label, since 2001. After releasing two albums that got them some publicity, the band split-up in 2006. After disputes were settled and some lineup changes occurred, the quartet inked a deal with Brutal Bands Records and released their long-overdue third full length release, titled Orgy of Murder. Thanks to the publicity that their second album brought them, Gorgasm’s third release proved to be a success and received generally positive feedback from both fans and critics alike. And, to be honest, when you compare it to all the other average brutal death records out there, this is a pretty fucking solid record.

The overall sound of the album has a lot of positive qualities, but there are quite a few things missing that would really bring up the brutality. Probably the most profound positive quality that Orgy of Murder carries is the fact that you can hear EVERYTHING clearly. There’s never a time where one of the instruments becomes dominant and covers everything else up. This is good, but it doesn’t give the music enough texture and variety to keep things interesting. Part of the reason why I love Cerebral Bore’s Maniacal Miscreation so much is because while you can hear everything, the guitars tend to cover up most of the bass, and then everything will go silent while the bassist bangs out a really cool fill while he’s exposed. That kind of texture and variety in dynamics keeps the music interesting. As attractive as it sounds, being able to hear everything all the time causes the music to get old fairly quickly.

The guitarists aren’t anything super special, but they do play some pretty catchy solos and really cool harmonizations like at the end of Exhibit of Repugnance. The bassist plays with a style that’s more commonly found in technical death than in traditional brutal death. This occasionally gets to the point to where the music has much more of a technical vibe to it. This technical vibe is increased by the fact that the guitar distortions aren’t super crunchy and metallic, therefore making the technical riffs sound much more complex than they actually are. As well as the bass, the drums are very complex. And, once again, this is increased by how the drums sound in the recording. A lot of technical bands, in order to make their music sound more complex than it actually is, will turn down the bass of the kick drums, turn down the volume of all the cymbals, and use very little buzz on the snare. To be honest, although the drummer is better than average when it comes to complexity, there really isn’t anything special about him. He does pretty much everything that needs to be done for the style of music he plays, and that’s it.

The vocalist is “unique” in a sense because he primarily does exhales instead of the traditional inhales that most bands of their type do. Are his exhaled growls any good? Eh, they’re ok, but nowhere near being someone that people would consider being outstanding. So although the growls aren’t anything special, they do give the music an interesting and unexpected twist. His sound is average, but I will say that he has some skill when it comes to speed. For example, the vocals on the second track, Dirty Cunt Beatdown, are fantastic. In this song, he shows variety in speed, pitch, and volume. But then again, most of the extremely deep growls are simply back-up growls from one of the guitarists.

Gorgasm have proved their status with Orgy of Murder. Although not the most skilled and creative brutal death band, they most certainly aren’t below-average. What people would probably like to see from them next is some progression. With no major issues, the only one being the monotonous sound of the music throughout the album, Gorgasm brings a basic (but very solid) piece of brutality to the table with bits and pieces of uniqueness. I would recommend this mainly just to the brutal death and death grind community. But if you want to dive into the genre with these guys, it’s not a bad place to start. I would give Orgy of Murder a score of 13/20.