Catching Broadness

These geisha lovers… sorry, goners are another fine addition to the richly gifted Polish metal scene, having appeared at the end of the 80’s alongside other talented outfits like Testor, Pascal, Acrimony, etc. All of these acts belonged to the technical/progressive side of the good old thrash, and acquitted themselves with fine tributes to it, our friends here shooting their official release, the album reviewed here, before anyone else (months before the Acrimony full-length, to be precise) thus becoming the unannounced leaders of this very interesting pack towards a brighter future, and into the 90’s…

this effort is built around schizophrenic, constantly shifting riff-patterns the insane shreds recalling Deathrow’s “Deception Ignored” and Sieges Even’s “Life Cycle”, among other meisterwerks. In other words, the guys had plenty of templates to choose from, and they have stirred a really delicious cocktail of several of those, complicating the environment quite a bit in the process, sometimes beyond the level of normal comprehension.

“The Fallen Race” is an encompassing opener, an overwhelming array of puzzling time-signatures and wild headbanging skirmishes, the guitars having a not very pronounced sterile, mechanical vibe akin to the one on Meshuggah’s “Contradictions Collapse”. The vocalist can’t possibly be a positive appendage with his harsh semi-shouty semi-death metal baritone, sounding quite strained at times, but the listener would hardly care about this inconvenience absorbed in the next dazzling showdown which is “Yossarian”, a bizarre combination of super-technical riff-formulas and strange psychedelic vibes the latter made even more outlandish due to the application of cool cleaner vocals. The short lyrical ballad “The Last Letter” is a very needed respite before the title-track enters the scene with hectic jazzy transitions and dizzying tempo changes the latter’s alternation too dense for one to be able to grasp them after just one listen.

“D.I.O.W. to S.Y.S.” creates some illusion of linearity at the beginning thanks to a brief lyrical etude, but expect smattering multi-layered soundscapes afterwards the shadow of Deathrow’s “Deception Ignored” looming heavily over this standout shredfest. “Necropolis” finally gives some room to the lead guitarist to shine, and the man doesn’t disappoint bravely duelling with the super-stylized rifforamas and the momentary speedier excursions, throwing a couple of superb melodic pirouettes into the incendiary musical furnace. It’s the bass player’s turn to impress on “Among the Lies”, and his reverberations tussle with the leads, threatening to overshadow the spasmodic jazzy breaks and the virtuoso spiral-like riff configurations those great reminders of other auteurs from the guys’ homeland like Astharoth and Dragon. A semblance of normality sparkles on “SelfCentered UltraDeath (S.C.U.D.)”, but expect to be challenged to an extent by the last portion of perplexing time-shifts served on a less active mid-paced base.

A very strong showing owing as much to the aforementioned albums as it does to highlights from the Polish field like Dragon’s “Scream of Death” and Astharoth’s “Gloomy Experiments” although the underlying order, that is supposed to stitch the multiple goings-on here, is perhaps not that disciplined; the guys’ imagination runs rampant on quite a few times resulting in a couple of plot lapses, and although the musical proficiency of everyone involved more than suffice for them, a less exuberant delivery may have kept the fans on track the whole time. Now the metal head will gape in wonder at the dexterity exhibited in abundance, but may be left more puzzled than bewitched at the end.

Regardless, for a display of overt, over-the-top technicality one can hardly wish for anything more than this opus which brought an eye-opening conclusion to a very strong year for Polish technical/progressive thrash that also comprised other marvels both on the official (Acrimony’s ”Into the Unknown”) and the underground (Pascal’s “Collection of Destroyed Brains”, Testor’s “Through the Back Door”, Astharoth’s “Limits”) front.

Spacing out was next on the list of almost every mentioned practitioner including on the one of our friends here who went to a galaxy far far away with their next instalment “Hunting for the Human” two years later which was an eclectic compilation of both more aggressive, nearly death-prone, outbursts and deviant non-metal etudes with quite a few other additives inserted in-between like Voivod-ish psychedelia, hard’n heavy hymns, funky bassisms, etc. An interesting, albeit overdone again, compendium that was given one more chance, on the “M.A.V.O.” demo, a few months later where the surreality went a bit over the edge, but again wasn’t a display of bad taste or anything too degrading.

The geishas have gone home, the party’s over; it was a thrilling, exhilarating experience making these Oriental beauties more than welcome any whichever time they decide to visit these, or any other for that matter, shores.

If you you are on the lookout for some decent Polish thrash metal from the early nineties you aren’t exactly spoilt for choice. Most of the noteworthy bands of the previous decade had either split up or decided to pursue the opportunist path of run-of-the-mill, uninspired death metal. Sure, there was this passing fad of playing technical (or “techno”(sic!) for short) thrash, showcased by bands such as Pascal or Testor but I challenge you not to yawn while listening to their output from those days.

So there I was, a young and starry-eyed fanzine editor, thinking I knew it all and dismissing any possibility of ever hearing anything fresh from Vistula-side thrash merchants when one day a tape arrived. It contained five of the seven tracks that were to become “Catching Broadness” and at that time I considered it to be a major revelation. First of all, the production values were unusually high. Everything sounded unusually clear, every instrument had its own place in the soundstage, hell, you could even follow the intricate bass lines without using the graphic equaliser.

Then there was the musicianship. These days, when Poland boasts some of the most technically competent brutal death metal bands in the world, no-one will probably remember that all those years ago bands with that much technical flair were a scarce commodity in my country. Well, Geisha had it all: the shimmy, the nutmeg, the drop of the shoulder, you name it. But seriously, there was nothing to fault their unique brand of thrash metal. Great riffing, tight drumming, bass-work to die for. As for the vocals – they were in a class of their own. Maciek Taff kept sending proper shivers down my spine with his many shades of thrashy expressions. Honestly, even today I am struggling to think of a single thrash vocalist with such a wide range and so much character (right, the red-headed one from Megadeth was also kinda allright in his heyday). When in the first track “The Fallen Race” (5:10) he is offset by a screaming growl of the bass player (“Cry-ing children, cry-ing motheeeers…”) I still nearly come whenever I listen to it.

The compositions seemed a little convoluted at first approach but even though there was no simple verse-chorus structure you could still bang your head to them most of the time. There was enough melody and catchy bits to set them apart from their more mundane techno-thrash contemporaries. And two of the tracks started with ballady intros, cheesy enough to endear them to your girlfriend before going into a barrage of fast riffing.

Why am I writing it all in the past tense? First of all, I’m not a full-time headbanger anymore. Chances are, to many of you out there Geisha Gonner will sound just that tad too cheesy and dated. I still believe, uninformed as I might be, that “Catching Broadness” is the best thing ever to have happened in Polish progressive / technical thrash and a worthy listen in its own right even today. Of course, the production doesn’t seem anything special anymore. I realize the guitar sound in riffs is far too dry, and leads and solos don’t seem so great anymore. Taff’s English, which I once admired, leaves a lot to be desired. It’s hard not to laugh when in the aforementioned “The Fallen Race” he sings “We are the goners” (And we are the Monkeys, if you get my drift). Plus the CD re-edition of the original cassette album contains some really horrible bonus tracks which show how they lost the plot on their second album. Still, if you fancy some fairly original nineties thrash with a twist, get this one.