This is the eighth album from Polish black metal act Gurthang.
It’s always good to catch up with what Gurthang are doing. 2019’s Ascension and 2021’s Hearts of the Hollow were both solid records, which now brings us to the 43-minute Martyrium.
I do enjoy Gurthang’s style, but here they have outdone themselves. Martyrium combines old-school black metal influences with crushing doom, resulting in a blend of blackened doom that takes strengths from both the old and the new.
Martyrium finds Gurthang on rare form. The well-written songs hold the attention easily. There are more hooks than you would imagine too, especially for something like this. The black metal is darker and colder, while the doom is lightless and immense. Taken together, as they typically are, these songs are immersive and richly atmospheric. Gurthang clearly know what they’re doing.
The songs benefit from a grim distortion that’s malignant and foul, and the vocals drip with acid and scathing intensity. This may be the singer’s best performance I’ve heard. The melodies are sinister and invoke a spectral grandeur that’s rooted in earthy malevolence, while the bass is actually made good use of as an instrument that has a valid contribution to make. Synths add layers, subtly enhancing the whole. Underpinning everything are the drums, providing a capable backbone that everything else is built upon.
Martyrium is a trip into the unknown darkness, with these five tracks as your menacing guides. It’s easy to get lost in their malefic charms, so be careful where you tread, as one step wrong will find you tumbling, screaming, into the abyssal depths of Gurthang’s world.
Although I haven’t heard all of Gurthang’s extensive discography, this must surely be their premier opus. It’s a remarkably good album, with lots to explore, strong performances throughout, and songwriting that has obviously been thought about a great deal. Black metal fans need to be all over this one.
Wonderbox Metal 