80% - 'It speaks to me in tongues' (lyric quote)

Primordial are a band that have always had something to say. From the nostalgic national romanticism of their earlier releases, to the nihilistic rejection of those very same ideals in 2007’s masterpiece To the Nameless Dead, Primordial have always wanted their music to have emotional and political meaning beyond its mere compositional structures and forms.

In spite, however of all the innate focus on politics and history found in The Gathering Wilderness, it still manages to avoid the prototypical problem with overtly political/didactic music of an overwhelming emphasis on message over good songcraft and musicianship. The songs on The Gathering Wilderness dynamically rise and fall like the olden empires Primordial is so fond of; tied together by the burning guitar lines the band are known for and carried along by frontman Alan Averill’s impassioned vocal cries. The vocals are and always will be a highlight of Primordial’s work, but never so much as on The Gathering Wilderness; Averill ranges from his standard bellowing cleans, to harsh screams, to sinister whispers, to feeble, triumphant background humming. “Who casts the shadow upon our age?” he asks at one point; a resounding open question that seems to encompass the shining past, the bleak future, and everything in between, made only more powerful by the devastating vocal style used to deliver it.

With all that said, The Gathering Wilderness is not without its fair share of problems. In terms of the realisation of overall musical aims, The Gathering Wilderness is largely lacking. Individual verses and riffs stand as recurrent, self-contained events, rather than contributing to a broader musical narrative. The occasional poorly placed lyrical passage certainly doesn’t help in this regard. “Sometimes I get to thinking about the past, when I’ve had more than a drink or two,” sings Averill on the largely pointless final track; A line that, given the clean, easily understandable vocal style with which it is delivered, and the unusually misplaced confidence Averill has in the verse is enough to pull even the most entranced listener out of their reverie.
Through this review, the impression may have been given that The Gathering Wilderness is at its core a flawed or unenjoyable album, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s full of downright inspired moments and ideas. Compositionally, The Gathering Wilderness leaves very little to be desired, it’s just that conceptually, it’s emblematic of a band that knew exactly what they wanted to say, but were still searching for the perfect way of saying it.

Carcass are a band which certainly need no introduction, a band which upped the ante in the realms of the extreme metal world and quickly made a name for themselves (thanks to John Peel) in the death metal scene. This is their debut taking a theme of gore seasoned with medical jargon taken from medical dictionaries. Song names such as "Microwaved Uterogestation", "Carbonized Eyesockets" and "Vomited Anal Tract" (and the lyrics) would make the likes of Ed Gein's stomach turn. I have personally never been a fan of these kinds of lyrics and vocals (as long as they fit, I don't care), and never will be but I mostly judge music by the instrumentation anyway, the Carcass guys certainly know what to do in this theme and they are bloody good at it.

The album opens up with a masterpiece of an instrumental "Genital Grinder" with a dark, atmospheric beginning and one heck of a bloody good riff which then dives into "Regurgitation of Giblets" a very strong opening but there's one thing dragging this down from the let go and that is the production. Never have I heard of such piss poor production in my life, it sounds like it has been submerged in mud and thus affects the whole album. At many different points in the album some instruments are more punctuated above others examples include "Maggot Colony" where the snare seems to appear in random places thus giving the appearance of bad timing, the timing issue appears on other songs too for instance the intro to "Burnt to a Crisp" I can't think what but something doesn't seem quite right to me in that. The solos are very bad in places, too it's very noticeable on the likes of "Vomited Anal Tract" which is nothing but a high pitched squeal which would make you want to book an appointment with Mr. Blonde. The solo in Pungent Excruciation also appears to drown out the other instruments. The bass is highly inaudible with the exception of the intro to "Malignant Defecation" and "Oxidized Razor Masticator" which are both some of my favourites.

The riffs are pretty good overall I feel that they had some great creativity on this album but much of it appears to be indecipherable and jumpy at times ("Fermenting Innards" is an example). I especially liked the riff in "Oxidized Razor Masticator" which I am certain was modified slightly for use on the Necroticism album (might have been Incarnated Solvent Abuse or Corporal Jigsore Quandary or just my imagination) from which I can decipher of it. The riff in "Burnt to a Crisp" is another catchy, upbeat, head bang worthy mention that comes to mind although the solo yet again, sounds muffled. I also enjoyed the riff in "Fermenting Innards", despite starting off poorly. In places they slow down adding a very nice variation and break from the fast parts. The middle part of the album was a bit of a chore to get through in places (well, in quite a lot of parts) and I do feel that the production really dampens the overall enjoyment and really does drain the overall creativity and composition in a vast majority of it which is a real shame. All I can say is, this really needs a remaster I do believe that they have remastered this so I may track that down. The bad production though is probably what gave this album the iconic status it had/has in death metal but nowadays, I notice that it really gets in the way at several critical points.

This is certainly an album which has potential but as I have got older I start to really notice the poor production more and the changes of master volume changes amongst other little things.

Favourite songs: "Genital Grinder", "Oxidized Razor Masticator", "Burnt to a Crisp", "Maggot Colony" (the latter two: despite some parts sounding iffy, they are good) and "Malignant Defecation".