ALBUM REVIEW: And Justice For Balls – Gorgonchrist
Despite its po-faced imagery and outlook, extreme metal of all forms, but black metal especially, is a form of music that gels well with humour. From established acts like LAWNMOWER DETH to modern acts like FOOTPRINTS IN THE CUSTARD and RAISED BY OWLS, the more polarising ends of metal, when approached with a generous dose of humour, are almost always great. GORGONCHRIST are proof of this; with their first two albums – 2019’s The Blood Of Endangered Species and 2023’s Fish In A Mountain – and their hilarious and powerful live shows, the trio have earned quite a name within the UK’s black metal scene with their weighty brand of blackened crust punk. Their latest album, And Justice For Balls, sheds the rougher, sludgier edge of their early work, broadening the scope of their sound whilst making their lyrics even more humorous.
Toaster Inferno kicks things off with a harsh and intense slab of punk-inflected black metal with tight drums, angular guitars and arid vocals all contributing to the aggressive and muscular sound, starting this record on a powerful and punishing note. Pork Sword Of Damocles, a song that’s equally as speed-driven and jarring as the opener, provides energetic guitar performances and dense vocals which cut through the frenetic drums and bass to add a sharper quality to proceedings, especially when it comes to the chaotic flourishes that are peppered throughout. The Dragon’s Treasure, with its rumbling, hypnotic drums and slicker, melodic guitar work, serves as a punchier, mid-paced offering that accentuates an underlying catchiness, with a few harder elements of punk and black metal thrown into the mix, particularly when it comes to the vocals, which carve a bellicose roar through the music that backs them, adding a fiercer edge to everything.
The fairly short and minimalist Questions From A Victorian Mortuary Part 4 is built around rumbling drums, spartan guitar and repetitive, chanting vocals, allowing the comedy at the heart of the music to come to the fore whilst still remaining fierce. Legs Of A Penguin is a groove-laden affair with chunky guitars, thunderous drumming and searing vocals reverting to the crust punk-indebted sound that made some of the album’s earliest tracks so impactful, making for a sludgy, rhythmic beast that’s lively and memorable. I Cum Brûlée blends the sharp blackened sound of Pork Sword Of Damocles with the catchy hooks of The Dragon’s Treasure and injects a dramatic undercurrent into the music, with subtle discordance and throaty vocals adding another layer to the huge and imposing sound.
Anal Civilisations veers back towards the effective, meaty rhythms of Legs Of A Penguin and opts for a thicker, blackened death sound, with the vocals ranging from gutturals through to feral shrieks, proving to be amongst the most intense songs on the album. Questions From A Victorian Mortuary Part 69, another brief, stripped back effort that uses cleaner vocals to let the humour shine through, is a great segue that gets more visceral as its progresses. Satanic Cunt Slicer peppers in touches of black ‘n’ roll into the domineering style that was present on Anal Civilisations, creating a noxious mix of styles that ultimately gel and make this a varied and adventurous song.
Monkey Pump, with its grating tremolo picking and dark atmosphere, is another great piece of music that is extremely immersive, whilst making sure to add new ideas and blistering, feral moments in amongst the doom-laden slower sections to keep the listener on their toes. Dr Lovefire starts out as an expansion of the bleak, swampy blackened doom of the preceding track, but slowly alters towards a faster, more frenzied sound as the song reaches its climax, with a much more dissonant take on the band’s sound running through the whole track, making it sound even more harsh, and concluding this record in excellent fashion.
And Justice For Balls, much like the band’s two preceding records, has a lot going for it both musically and lyrically. It’s brilliantly funny at points, but the music itself is seriously considered and it’s clear that although that the humour plays a huge role in the band’s presentation, they are taking the time to construct music that can stand on its own merit as well, rather than piecing tracks together as a vehicle for a punchline. The sound, which is much more polished, focused and adventurous throughout in a way that Fish In A Mountain, as impressive a record as that was, didn’t quite achieve, showcases the band at their leanest and most creative, and hopefully this harsher, more eclectic sound will be replicated again on whatever the band has planned next.
Rating: 8/10
And Justice For Balls is out now via Road To Masochist.
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