Grief Relic

Do remember when Gorguts released ‘Colored Sands’ back in 2013 (it’s spelt ‘coloured’ by the way), and everyone rushed to condemn or praise it in equal measure? A modernised version of Gorguts at the turn of the century, or yet another aging death metal act struggling to keep step with one fad or another? Enter Withered of Atlanta, Georgia, with their second LP ‘Grief Relief’ (2016). I’m torn as to how to approach this. There is an undeniable similarity to ‘Colored Sands’ that simply cannot be ignored, but it seems more fitting to hold Withered up to the standards of this album’s predecessor, 2010’s ‘Dualitas’.

The latter of which is a dark and epic exploration of that elusive idea that is modern extreme metal. Neither death nor black, drawing upon post hardcore, doom, grindcore, and no small pinch of sludge. Spacey, cavernous production, disjointed dissonant chords, non-linear compositions, all designed to augment the disorientation of a disorientating age. I can’t decide if this style is tired or yet to reach its potential. So many tedious failures disguising themselves as artistic maturity, with scant nuggets of promise here and there, located in the mechanistic bowls of techniques and tricks within the music as opposed to any emotional impact it may have. If one has to search so hard for a reason to praise something does it simply devolve into grasping at straws to seem intelligent? Everyone seems to be going for this super alienating sound right now that we appear to have reached edgy saturation.

Well, for Withered, I really enjoyed their ‘Dualitas’, for the simple reason that the thing fucking developed itself as the album progresses. The compositions, although grating and dissonant in places, seemed to unfold with malevolent purpose, enhanced by no small amount of character. So what’s the problem with ‘Grief Relief’? It feels like it should be Withered’s debut. Despite the music being denser, more riffs, more layers, more shifts and turns, more aggression…much less is said. Sure there’s cool passages, a neat little percussive riff chucked in here, a pleasingly unexpected breakdown there, but the whole thing seems starved of inspiration.

With highly stylised music like this, there are some that will just lap up whatever such bands release as long as it contains all the above-mentioned trappings (Spacey, cavernous production, disjointed dissonant chords, non-linear compositions). But for those of us that need some…y’know, music to sit beneath this pleasing but nevertheless surface-level aesthetics, we smell a rat. So let’s be right, ‘Grief Relief’ is still ahead of the pack as far as this sludgy new breed of extreme metal is concerned, for any fan of ‘Dualitas’, you will still get a lot of this, so don’t let the preceding pedantry discourage you.

Originally published at Hate Meditations