Review Summary: The end of an era for Gorod, but the start of an astounding new vision for the band.
Gorod's newest album is a monster of an EP. With only 5 tracks the band manages to fill it with countless new musical ideas and new takes on old songs. The album consists of a re-recorded version of 'Earth Pus', a acoustic rendition of Blackout, a cover of 'Textures' by Cynic, another acoustic rendition of 'Earth Pus', and finally the masterpiece of the album, a new song titled after the album. The band leaves some of its death metal influences in favor of a more progressive sound.
Earth Pus is remastered with a few instrumental variations from the original. The new production does the song wonders. The drums are also notably better, and this carries throughout the whole album. They still have the groovy feel from Leading Visions, but also pack the precision and technicality from Process of a New Decline.
Blackout: Renewed Souls is the first bite of the fresh musical approach on the album. Rewritten for classical guitar, the song takes on a Spanish feel and shows off the bands ability to compose abstract music. The percussion and bass fit perfectly in with the guitars and provide an excellent backing to the melodies.
Gorod takes Cynic's Textures and makes it sound as if it were their own. By adding quite a bit more distortion and cleaning up the production quite a bit they make the song sound fresh again. This track honestly feels a bit like a filler while compared to the rest of the album, but is still a great listen.
Earth Pus: Salvation is the second acoustic song on the album and immediately draws the listener in. As with the first acoustic track, it is not a straight acoustic port but a completely re imagined version based on the original. Orchestrated elements are adding to give the song a good deal of atmosphere and emotion while the guitar melodies bounce around. Percussion comes in about halfway through to throttle the song with sense of intensity throughout the guitar solos.
Transcendence is a monster of a track clocking in at about 15 and a half minutes. The song carries you through various influences throughout Gorod's current discography. The song has a solid structure that seems to keep the song from becoming tedious at it's length. It starts off rather mellow and eventually leads into a few solos before getting into some more grooves. At around the 6:30 mark, the song really starts to take off. Blending technical grooves and searing leads, the middle section of the song leads into a profound melody that is guaranteed to get stuck in your head. After the middle section, it lead into more metal grooves before making a return to the melody at the end of the middle section. It ends with an acoustic guitar much the same way Hidden Genocide off Leading Visions did.
The vocals on the album are handled much the same way they were on previous albums. The guitars are nothing new, but with Gorod's reputation, that's hardly a bad thing. The bass is audible through the entire album and adds a great layer of depth. The percussion adds a perfect mix of the last 2 Gorod albums take on drumming. The composition on the new songs is the highlight of the album, showing off the band's ability to write well thought out music. If you like any of Gorod's previous material, or any other technical metal, you will love this.
