Gorod – ‘A Perfect Absolution’

Typical, isn’t it? You complain about the apparent lack of decent French metal bands and then, like buses to the mysterious ‘Not In Service’, a whole bunch come along at once.

‘A Perfect Absolution’ is the third full-lengther – and the second on Listenable – from this Bordeaux five-piece and, like the wine from that particular part of the world, a damn fine offering it is too: full-blooded, plenty of depth of flavour and satisfying.

The most obvious comparison to draw is with countrymen, and labelmates, Gojira, as Gorod play that same brand of hard-hitting, highly complex technical metal. Opener ‘Birds Of Sulphur’, for example, builds from at atmospheric intro into a barrage of blastbeats, while ‘Elements And Spirit’ features some psychedelic almost jazzy interludes and ‘5000 At The Funeral’ has a terrific, again very jazzy (almost flamenco in it feel) acoustic intro section which again develops into an Opeth-like mix of blastbeats, downbeats, almost catchy riffs and an interesting use of spoken vocals in among Julien Deyres’ highly effective death metal screams and grunts.

Muiscally, there is not a bad performance on this eight track opus: bassist Benoit Claus and drummer Samuel Santiago work brilliantly together to lay down solid rhythms, with the latter’s blastbeats displaying just enough variety not to get boring, while the twin guitars of Mathieu Pascal and Nicolas Alberny work brilliantly together and there are some terrific moments, such as the already mentioned ‘Elements And Spirit’ and almost disco-like electronic vibe of ‘Varangian Paradise’.

A not unpalatable 8/10.

About Mark Ashby

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