ALBUM REVIEW: Out Of Control – Gideon

Though GIDEON are a fascinating case study of modern metal for a cacophony of reasons, it’s always been their end product that has made them a band worthy of your attention. Even when the band were firmly wrapped within the walls of their Christian metalcore roots at the start of their tenure, your taste for musical nods to religion remained somewhat irrelevant. Their early offerings Costs and Milestone though raw, gave us an insight into a band that you just felt under the right circumstances could really find their stride.

It’s on the band’s fifth album Out Of Control where the Alabama bruisers have landed in a zone where they sound most captivating. The truth is that a lot of attention will be (and already has been) drawn to the quartets decision to leave Christian metal behind them, to outwardly state they now find difficulty in believing strongly enough to incorporate it into their art form. But when the dust settles on the four piece’s fifth album, you’ll soon realise: this records back story is interesting, but its true gold lies within its thematic batterings.

Sure, lyrics like “You’ll live or die by the book, this hell won’t take you to heaven” on DENIAL are certain to capture attention, but it’s the beat down edge that permeates the track which stands out as the hook here, and GIDEON‘s rip roaring intensity is always their greatest trump card.

What Out Of Control does best is take the bands pre-existing tenacity and weave it into areas you’d never felt them go before. Despite its scathing instrumental attacks, this is the most groove-laden record GIDEON have ever penned. SOUTHWIND and OUTLAW are half COUNTERPARTS and half CHIMAIRA esque assaults of expansive, fire breathing metal. Though the four piece have flirted with this sonic mish-mash before – this feels like fresh, welcome ground for the Alabama quartet.

More than any other record GIDEON have thrown at us previously, you can feel the bands angst and frustration burrowing through this record. The snapping 2 CLOSE featuring Drew York of STRAY FROM THE PATH describes a riveting revolt against the system, while BITE DOWN is a low tuned sonic apocalypse – guitarist Tyler Riley has never sounded so punishing.

Even when the record sits in a more predictable airfield of melodic hardcore on the title track and TAKE ME – it’s still razor sharp. The flickering clean guitar lines thrown around the cataclysmic breakdowns on the latter make for a setting that you can foresee being a death trap live – and Out Of Control in general has a track list full of ragers that GIDEON could slot into their set list tomorrow and no one would dare raise an eyebrow.

There’s myriad reasons why you may be drawn to Out Of Control – not least for its depiction of religious turntable, but what presides over all other factors of GIDEON‘s interest, is their ability to write a chest thumping hardcore record. Out Of Control finds GIDEON stomping over new ground, but conquering it all the same – it’s reinvention of the greatest kind.

Rating: 8/10

Out Of Control is out now via Rude Records/Equal Vision Records.

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