Reflections of Inanimate Matter

So I stumbled across this with absolutely no prior knowledge and unexpectedly really liked it after enjoying the kind-of-80s-thrash/kind-of-post-modernist album artwork. I was reliably informed by the Metal Archives that Gomorrah played death metal, but it seems as if they were diverging from the core genre sound right from their first album, ending up even further away on the subsequent Caress the Grotesque.

Here, we get a sound rooted in death metal, particularly the vocals, which are low and gruff. The rest of the music is much more sprightly and lighter than one would expect from death metal, dancing at higher speeds almost like a speed metal band, without too many blastbeats but with some of the tremolo and low end barrage more typical of death. Then there are other features that really turned me on to this record, such as the frequent melodic solos: for these, we're talking really melodic and quite clean in sound, so that they come out of the lower mix very clear and sweet, usually crafting specific shapes rather than just making noise or creating a dramatic effect. There are also a few melodies and moments when both guitars are working in unison ('Rejoice in Flames' has some great licks at the offset), plus an atmosphere that comes as a result of the slower moments on the album. Here, the style leans towards doom or doom death, as the creepy opening of 'Sewer-Cide' is quick to show, while the less deathly moments have a great groove to them, though certainly not in the cliched groove style that the 90s exhausted so quickly.

All this may sound like a strange mix, and at times it does make you do a double-take when you realize what the song has morphed into, but for the most part Gomorrah do a great job of writing songs that cover up any fault lines between their various influences. I never get the feeling that anything has been forced into the compositions, since although the changes in pace often happen on a pin-head, there is always a very clear idea about where the song is headed to, while the production is very forgiving (I would describe it as soft), meaning that disparate elements can sit together more comfortably and without jagged edges. The faster parts, like I mentioned, are a bit like speed metal in the dirty sense, actually coming close to some of Sodom's earlier material (hahaha Sodom and Gomorrah, I just got it), while also churning like some more orthodox peers - for example Death or the UK's own Benediction. At slower pace, we get the grimy, echoey ambience of Paradise Lost's first couple of albums, plus something like Cemetary (Sweden) who both knew how to be melodic and threatening before they went off in search of other pastures.

Songwise, there aren't any duffers, though with only 7 to choose from, that's what you'd hope. The opener 'Without Trace' gets things going with a great diversity of riffs and pace, while the closing 'Human Trophies' is more atmospheric and pressured, particularly the filmy crawl through the long sample, which really impresses a documentary-style sense of horror upon the account of sadism/perversion. Another sample is also notable for drawing the listener's attention, though it is certainly bizarre to hear the BBC's weather report (trust me it's the BBC, I listened to that every day in my childhood) in 'Seasons', because it isn't creepy or atmospheric or interesting, unless you've got a fetish for the Queen's English. After the introduction, 'Sewer-Cide' lays down some great thrash riffs and a very natural groove riff in the chorus, plus shredding exuberantly in the mid-section, blending the catchy riffing style to extreme metal's faster and more brutal percussion.

In terms of individual contributions, I have mentioned the guitarists quite a bit already and - while they are responsible for much of the shape and detail of the songs - John Clark's bass does a hell of a lot of work and comes through surprisingly strongly in the mix considering that the drums are not that loud. His basslines tend to fit in with the flurry of guitars at high pace, but in the slower moments or during transitions he gets a lot of action, even soloing furiously with a distorted and high-pitched effect in the opening of 'Deviant', while adding solemn clean licks to 'Another Bleak Horizon' as it gradually slows to a doom conclusion. 'Deviant' is also notable for being the only song when I can clearly detect some of Sven Olafson's guttural lyrics and that's only in the line "Into the wound as I masturbate", so perhaps it's for the best that he simply sounds menacing instead of totally clear.

I suppose that Reflections of Inanimate Matter is the kind of death metal album that appeals to someone like me (I prefer melodic metal) because the drums are toned down from super-blast wank-fest to a more controlled injection of speed and the string players really show a lot of diversity. The quality of the material here is generally high, though may rankle with fans of purer death owing to the lack of hard-edged extremity.