ALBUM REVIEW: WOUND – Ghorot
When you support the likes of YOB, MONOLORD and KHEMMIS on the strength of your debut album, you know you’re doing something right. Boise, Idaho blackened doom trio GHOROT did just that with 2021’s Loss Of Light, which teemed with rock ‘n’ roll swagger and brutal malice. Now on their follow-up WOUND, they dial up the intensity and reach a whole new level.
Straight away, the opening of Dredge feels more ominous. Where Loss Of Light focused on riffs and carried a more trad doom air, WOUND seems to be swinging for the discordant noise that has nestled into the genre neatly in recent years. The riffs are still there, and bluesy lead licks still poke their head above the precipice, giving this album a NOLA/southern sludge vibe, but it’s the gratuitous amounts of feedback heaped onto this opening track that becomes the star of the show.
Bleeding into In Asentia, the guitar torture continues, shrieking under guttural roars. It’s a volatile and inhospitable land that makes your skin crawl on occasion, but when the drums of Brandon Walker and bass of Carson Russell come together under Chad Remains’ lead riffs, and the trio all chip in on the destructive vocals, it’s utterly spellbinding.
When much of the feedback subsides for Corsican Leather and Canyon Lands though, something feels off. The tracks still go heavy and every other component remains seemingly the same, but it’s as if the tracks are inconsequential. They lack the staying power of those preceding cuts and feel far less identifiable or ownable to GHOROT. Now here’s the kicker: were they on Loss Of Light, they would sound fantastic. They’d slot in and make up a cohesive addition to the record, but here, with their new focus that dominates WOUND, they feel like a regression. If they could commit to the characteristics that make Dredge and In Asentia so great, the album would not feel like it’s stalling here.
However, Neanderskull closes the album with more of that vile dissonance that really works for the band. Cataclysmic in its destructive prowess and deliciously evil throughout, it’s a full circle closer that will make you want to hit play again right away.
All told, WOUND feels colossal, which is surprising given that it only comprises five tracks across its 40-minute runtime. These are hefty slabs of blackened doom that never overstay their welcome but last long enough for ideas to be fleshed out and properly realised. Everything is given the opportunity to breathe and exist, without feeling rushed or forced and it makes this album – however violent it is – a pleasure to experience.
GHOROT are at an interesting point in their life cycle. Established and growing, they’ve been bold in how they have taken the next step here with WOUND and are starting to really carve out a sound for themselves. If they can commit wholly to that direction, then there’s no telling what comes next for them.
Rating: 7/10
WOUND is out now via Lay Bare Recordings, Transylvanian Records and King Of The Mountain Records.
Like GHOROT on Facebook.