PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
I read very little fiction these days, but I remember when my mother was introducing me to the weird and wonderful world of literature and exploring the shelves of dusty, leather bound volumes which dominated our living room. Naturally, as a nascent metallian, I was drawn to the darker side of this world of words, and works such as ‘Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde’, ‘Frankenstein’, ‘Dracula’ and ‘The Vampyre’ captured my youthful imagination.
It is the darker side of the universe that authors such as Stevenson, Shelley, Stoker, Polidori, Poe, Le Fanu, James et al evoked that also inspires Midlands monsters Gehtika‘s new self-released opus magnus. ‘A Monster In Mourning’ is not only an album which reflects man’s continuing fascination with the darker side of his psyche, but is one which does so against a backdrop which is in turns brutal and bombastic, and yet delivered with positivity and fierce passion.
It’s an album which is suitably dense and dynamic therein, but also one rammed with huge harmonies and massive melodies, as well as some pretty neat shredding, and treads a distinguished path between the death, groove and progressive metal subgenres with aplomb and ease. The twin guitars of Scott Allen and Topher O’Meagher intertwine with a fluidity that both belies and underpins the aggression they provoke, while Anthony Knight’s vocals are towering and majestic, yet with enough underlying grunt to complement the dark spirits which his lyrics evoke.
The end result is an album with is both darkly reflective and freshly enervating in its approach.
Track list:
Apollyon / One Night: Seven Sins / Step Forth From The Darkness / Stack The Pyres / Empire In Decay / A Monster In Mourning / Reckoning / The Massaquerade / Shepherd Of Erebus / The Fiend Staring Back At Me / A Halo Of Crows
Recommended listening: Stack The Pyres
‘A Monster In Mourning’ is out now.
