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GORELUST
We Are The Undead

PRC Music (2015)
Rating: 7/10

Emerging from Québec in Canada during 1991, it’s safe to say that Gorelust has been rather inactive since its inception because We Are The Undead is only the band’s second album. The debut emerged in 1995 and was entitled Reign Of Lunacy, but the band split up a year later. The combo returned in 2012 and has taken its time in putting together the fleshy pieces for this sophomore outing.

With its atmospheric cover art, We Are The Undead consists of members Jean Beaulieu (vocals), Martin Fournier (guitar), Pascal Chevrier (bass) and Francis Marmen (drums).

The music on offer is best described as brutal death metal with grind influences to the point that the guttural vocal coughs almost become part of the actual music. This is no bad thing however, because Gorelust has a real old school feel at times as they massacre their way through ten very accessible and yet ever-changing outburst of extreme metal.

Although not a complex animal, Gorelust is always one step ahead of its audience and keeps the crowd engaged with its ability to drift between styles. One moment we get a deadly thrash bludgeoning, the next an almost traditional metal melody before we’re battered by a grinding death metal episode. And it’s not just about horrible speed either – although this is incorporated with the ferocious growls of ‘There Is No God’ – and lovers of mid-tempo melody will revel in a majority of the tunes coughed up.

However, I will say that the guitar could have done with a touch more bite and the drums do tend to become rather lost in the background at times. Nonetheless, the album is still a rather aggressive affair that combines the more accessible elements of, say, Broken Hope with the deeper nastiness of Deicide but without the arrogant attitude.

For me, We Are The Undead is not about adhering to the current climate and so it refuses to budge from that mid-90s style of battering, and that’s where other death metal mongers such as Suffocation spring to mind as the band comes crashing into the room with choice cuts such as ‘Rape The Rapist’, ‘Penetrating The Weak’ and my favourite slab, ‘Wretched Life’ with its wailing solo and mid-tempo architecture.

And so, as we’ve already established, We Are The Undead is nothing new or groundbreaking and oddly it sounds more dated as a mid-90s expression rather than if it had been a tribute to the early 90s. Some of the songs are just a touch too understated for my liking – as if the band were somehow restricted from going all out in their fury – but as it stands, there is such a degree of accessibility here that it’s nigh on impossible dislike such a slab. How it fairs in the long run remains to be seen, and so I’m hoping that next time round (if there is a next time?!) Gorelust incorporates a little more punch all round.

Neil Arnold

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