ALBUM REVIEW: Gowanus Death Stomp – Gravesend
New York grind unit GRAVESEND follow up their brilliantly ferocious debut album Methods Of Human Disposal with equally as ferocious new album Gowanus Death Stomp and delivers an album that brings straight up filth, anger and general hatred and loathing for humanity together in total aural annihilation.
The reputation and vibe of the good old days of New York City’s grime, violence and fear is still all over GRAVESEND‘s music (and once again the artwork for the record) and theirs is still the soundtrack of the underground and the much nastier side of the Big Apple.
The ominous and perfectly titled intro Deranged start things off with a sample of flies buzzing around angrily which acts as a menacing warning and immediately conjures up the same kind of nasty vibe that the band have perfected and before you know it, the nightmare of the music of GRAVESEND is back without mercy as following track 11414 explodes into action and the fearsome grind that they emit sounds just as good as it did before.
From then on in, the band’s blackened and deathly grindcore madness simply tears through Gowanus Death Stomp‘s remaining thirteen tracks (with the albums closing track being very much like its intro in terms of that menacing atmosphere) and GRAVESEND take no prisoners and barely pause for breath as they deliver an album that is relentless in its razor sharp ferocity.
Whether it’s the full on death metal of tracks like Festering In Squalor, the straight up grind like Code Of Silence and the industrial groove of the album’s title track or the deathly sludge grind of Crown Of Tar, this is GRAVESEND doing what they do best and it sounds like they are having a hell of a time doing so, despite the bleak nature of the album, and it feels utterly triumphant in its cold hearted nature. GRAVESEND continue to destroy all in their path with Gowanus Death Stomp and sound simply unstoppable in doing so.
As you near the end of Gowanus Death Stomp, you may be forgiven for thinking that there is no way that GRAVESEND can get any nastier with this album, but they leave the nastiest for last in the best possible way with the unhinged Lupara Bianca (a mafia term for a killing and leaving no trace of the body which seems particularly apt for the finesse of the band’s brutality), the hypnotic grind of Carried By Six and the swirling insanity of Vermin Victory before Enraged closes things the way they started but with even more of a horror movie vibe coasting through it, and it’s all over with an intensity that encapsulates the energy of the streets and killing fields of old New York.
This is angry, filthy and violent music that hits you like a sledgehammer to the head in the most nightmarish fashion, but ultimately, you won’t want to wait to listen to it and go through it all again, it’s an album that is that infectious.
Long live GRAVESEND and the gloriously squalid noise they make, and it has to be said that Gowanus Death Stomp is music to make you feel the pain, the hate, the fear and the dirt time and time again.
Rating: 8/10
Gowanus Death Stomp is out now via 20 Buck Spin.
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