Gorge are an Italian death metal band and this is their debut album.
Containing a member of Fulci, Deeds of Horror dishes out 28 minutes of death metal that’s raw and nasty, but surprisingly catchy and memorable too. Gorge’s music is effortlessly good fun, and destined to cause pit mayhem wherever it goes.
Deeds of Horror is a record of merciless blast and groove. Gorge exist to channel the old-school heaviness and intensity of acts like Dying Fetus, Gorgasm, and Internal Bleeding. The album delivers a meaty feast of classic brutal death metal, alongside crushing hardcore bounce. Tempered by a contemporary touch, it’s a formula that’s instantly familiar, but no less effective because of it. It’s all blast beat fury and rhythmic ferocity, (and a small amount of melody), making for songs that are great fun to slam and thrash around to. The tracks are all easy to like, and before you know it you’ll be stomping around and kicking things over like a deranged monster.
Despite the obvious brutality of it all, Gorge spend more time than you might expect focusing on songwriting. The music is built around The Murder Riff, making it more engaging and enjoyable than if the band had opted for a more generic brutal/slam death metal approach.
There’s remarkably little filler for a record like this – no crappy intros, outros, or extended samples. Interestingly, despite having a track worryingly called Interlude that will initially make you fear the worst, it’s actually a short, doomy, Bolt Thrower-esque mood break that’s extremely effective. Gorge, apparently, know exactly what they’re doing.
Deeds of Horror wears its old-school heart on its sleeve, which is at least one of the reasons why it works so well. With hooky songs, short durations, good songwriting, and an impassioned execution, what’s not to like?
Very highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 