Nice intro, shame about the rest of it...
When the best thing you hear on an album is the sub-two minute intro track, you really have to wonder. In the case of Gory Blister's new album, this is precisely the case. 'Procession to Apocalypse' is a very nice little slice of symphonic sound, true, but the rest of the album doesn't really live up to the expectations that this spine-chilling orchestral mini-song creates.
'Skymorphosis' suffers not from being a particulary bad album, so much as being a disappointingly average one. I admit to being slightly prejudiced towards a band with such a silly name, but I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised. But, bar the odd pleasant little flourish (the mid section of 'I Shall Hang Myself' is particularly enjoyable, despite the track title), this fourteen track CD just kind of happened. I put it on, listened, and rapidly found my attention drifting. Thinking it might take a while to appreciate Gory Blister's brand of technical death metal, I listened again a few days later. Then for a third time, and still I found the majority of the album simply couldn't hold my attention. It's a shame that the band's songwriting is so unremarkable, as the "excellent musicianship" the press release mentions isn't just baseless hype. The ingredients are there, but the recipe is fundamentally flawed. If even after three listens you cannot recall any particular track, or even many of the melodies, from an album, there has to be something wrong with it.
I wish I could think of something more descriptive to say about Gory Blister, but really, with music as bland as this, it's a serious challenge. Death metal is often an exciting, ear-grabbing listen, but only if done well. As far as this album is concerned, the most self-absorbed, naval-gazing of soft rock bands would attract the listeners attention more. But there is hope present in the driving, melodic guitar work and the spot on drumming, suggesting that if Gory Blister can master the art of writing interesting songs, their next album might well be very good indeed.
At the end of the rather fancy booklet, Gory Blister tell us that "Death Metal is a form of Art", and in some cases this is certainly true. But while the likes of Opeth release the metal equivalent of the Mona Lisa every two years or so, Gory Blister have produced something more accuratly compared to a simplistic water colour of a twee country cottage - not particularly unpleasant, but not really the kind of thing that'll go down in history, either. If you're a technical death fanboy (or indeed, fangirl), then 'Skymorphosis' might help feed your habit for a week or so, but if you're more discriminating about your music then there's not much worth bothering about here.