Gigan Quasi-Hallucinogenic Sonic Landscapes |
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 | Tracklist:
1. Mountains Perched Like Beasts Awaiting the Attack
2. Suspended in Cubes of Torment
3. The Raven and the Crow
4. Within the Tentacled Grasp of a Buried Behemoth
5. Transmogrification into Bio-Luminoid
6. Skeletons of Steel, Timber, and Blackened Granite
7. Vespelmadeen Terror
8. The Fathomless Echoes of Eternity's Imagination
| Ranking: #124 for 2011 | |
| | other reviews | Thelungswarm (4.5)
The other review on here is short, this one explains the album more.. Gorguts mindfucking Lovecraft!... | GodL1ke (4)
Technical death metal well balanced between psychedelic intensity and melody.... |
On 4 Lists
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| Summary: While we all wait for the new Gorguts to drop, why not indulge your ears in this. |
6 of 6 thought this review was well written
Before you all get your pants wet with the summary statement, let me just inform you that Quasi-Hallucinogenic Sonic Landscapes is indeed a marvel of the tech-death world that seems to be either a hit or miss whenever I stumble upon a new release (you either love it or hate it if that makes anything more clear). Two of the worst things that people complain about within the genre are the mindless noodling antics and absolute waste of talent that takes favour to riffs that are about as dry and grating as licking sandpaper. Take for example the list of bands here: Abysmal Dawn, Revocation, Carnifex, The Faceless, Born of Osiris, Veil of Maya, pretty much anything that’s part of the dreadful Sumeriancore Label scene) – bands that falter from all of the mentioned above attributes + breakdowns. Looking at the brighter side of things, technical death metal done right sounds untouchable in it’s approach to musical chops as well as a good sense of song-writing, atmosphere, and memorable riffs with plenty of dynamics to boot. Take for example the list of bands here: Atheist, Gorguts, Ulcerate, Gorod, old Cryptopsy, Demilich – bands that have thrived off these qualities as well as created some of the greatest albums to preach the genre. As for QHSL, I bet you’ve already figured out by now where this fits into.
Not to be confused as a bona fide classic, Gigan are still a force to be reckoned with and can still slap the *** out of most musicians - particularly lead song-writer and multi-instrumentalist Eric Hensemenn who has a knack at creating tricky walls of chaos within the realms of death metals mighty technical blasts. Opener “Mountains Pearched Like Beasts Awaiting the Attack” slams on a wicked atmospheric bombardment before leading into a frantic alarm of grooving tech-death that really seems to dive in and out of all sorts of off-the-wall riffage and mind-***ingly fast rhythmical dynamics. After listening to this jumble of ideas, the rest of the album goes by at a blurs pace despite a few of the tracks elongated playing times. It’s not until around the fourth or fifth time through that these tracks begin to come together and make a bit more sense. As well if you’ve made it this far, an appreciation for the amount of detail unfolds revealing a treasure chest of golden ideas that come in the forms of crafty, dynamic song structures such as “The Raven and the Crow” serpent-like meandering, atmosphere galore (album opener takes the cake on this one), and nuanced detail to filling in the gaps where breathing space is barely present in the instrumentation (pretty much every song on the album).
Revving up on all musical fronts since their 2008 debut The Order of the False Eye, Gigan – particularly Eric Hensemenn - has created a densely dynamic, technical death metal album that not only serves as reminder that uniqueness does indeed exist within the realm of new and upcoming tech-death bands, but potentially Quasi-Hallucinogenic Sonic Landscapes could be followed up with an absolute masterpiece.
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| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
Album Rating: 4
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love this album.
Digging: Vaura - Selenelion | | |
get rid of the second summary
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pos'd review. cool band.
Digging: I The Breather - Truth and Purpose
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Hmmm sounds interesting.
Digging: Steamy Ray Vaughan - A Little Bit of Rattlesnake Digging: Steamy Ray Vaughan - A Little Bit of Rattlesnake
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Nice review Karl, gonna get this one along with the new Gorod EP then if it's as good as you say.
Digging: Rosetta - The Galilean Satellites Digging: Rosetta - The Galilean Satellites
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Might check this out but i usually despise most tech death.
Pos'd.
Digging: Autechre - Amber
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Favorite Godzilla monster gets band name.
Goes to listen to album with favorite Godzilla monster's name.
Nice review as always.
Digging: Venetian Snares - Cavalcade of Glee and Dadaist Happy Pom Poms Digging: Venetian Snares - Cavalcade of Glee and Dadaist Happy Pom Poms
| | | Album Rating: 4
yay 3 reviews for this, album is so dearly loved : )
well written as always, pos
Digging: Om - God is Good Digging: Om - God is Good | | |
this is cool
Digging: Love American - Disquiet
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
I like me some tech-death! I've always meant to check this band out, but I've never actually got around to it. Any resemblance to Fleshwrought or is this more standard death metal?
Digging: Wretched - Beyond The Gate | | | Album Rating: 3.5
Not too bad. A little too spastic for me and it has a psychedelic feel to it that I'm not sure I really like. It's good though, but I wasn't expecting this. I would almost classify this as grind rather than technical death metal.
| | | Album Rating: 4
you went slightly into bro-mode, Wiz.
bro-mode? I will get around to fixing that up.
It's good though, but I wasn't expecting this. I would almost classify this as grind rather than technical death metal.
Grind is way more straightforward than this.
Thanks for the kind words people.
| | | Album Rating: 4
this sounds excellent, will check out at some point.
Digging: Suis La Lune - Riala Digging: Suis La Lune - Riala | | |
I know you rec'd me this a while ago but i still haven't gotten around to it (haven't gotten around to much of anything since my computer died) but this review will make me check it out asap. Good that you're still finding the time to write.
Digging: Mount Eerie - Clear Moon
| | | Album Rating: 4
I have another one still on the go for M8L8TH's Unbreakable Faith, hopefully I can get that up with the next year or two hahahaha.
| | | Album Rating: 4
Second paragraph sounds like you went slightly into bro-mode, Wiz. Also some awkward phrasings in the same paragraph;
Fixed it up so it reads better. Also, I have no idea what was wrong with this:
"the rest of the album goes by at a blurs pace"
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Man this album is awesome. Good review.
Digging: Walknut - Graveforests And Their Shadows Digging: Walknut - Graveforests And Their Shadows
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
damn this is pretty good.
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