So, what was the deal with the second Goreaphobia full-length, anyway? I've had that demo compilation of theirs since it came out, but I just got around to giving their two albums a listen today. The first one was a bit surprising with the doom and black metal parts, but once I got used to that, it seemed like a logical extension of the first four songs off of
Demented Omen. Pretty decent old school reunion album, I'd say. Certainly better than that second post-reunion Asphyx debacle or the Vallenfyre stuff (which I initially liked but ended up selling after six months).
But yeah, that second album... It's like black/thrash/punk or something meets
Heartwork, complete with simple song structures and ample breathing room for the guitar solos. Listen to
this if you don't believe me. I don't know if I hate it, but it definitely doesn't grab me like their prior stuff does. I certainly was caught off guard by the style change, if that's what they were going for. The starts out sounding like
Mortal Repulsion, but it takes a left turn about halfway through the first track and never looks back, almost like they're fucking with the listener's expectations on purpose. They may have re-broken up at the right time if this is the direction they were heading in. Did Alex Bouks take all of his real Goreaphobia-sounding stuff to Incantation when he joined or something?
The goofiest thing is that the whole oldschool death metal (tm) crowd appears not to have even noticed the massive style shift between the two albums. These people just keep on praising everything that reminds them of what they think old Incantation or Entombed sound like. The distinction here is important: not stuff that actually sounds
like old school death metal, but rather, stuff that approximates what the funderground
thinks made the elder classics great. In the case of the last Goreaphobia album, the new school old schoolers didn't even really acknowledge the change.
I'm kind of perversely impressed with Gorephobia in a way, for so utterly pulling the wool over the NWN/Dark Descent crowd's eyes. I mean, look at this Metal-Archives review:
Their entire discography is possessed with old-school dirt that chomps like a hungry shark, and thankfully none of the group's horrific habits were dropped during this excellent slab of maggot-infested death metal. "Apocalyptic Necromancy" is a fantastic dive into Goreaphobia if you've never experienced the spell of these American monsters, or you can listen to some fake death metal from the likes of The Black Dahlia Murder or Whitechapel, because real death metal isn't for everyone. Those of you with brain cells and knowledge, take note of this wonderful exhibition.
"Real death metal isn't for everyone." Apparently a very true statement, as evidenced by the author's inability to tell the real stuff from something that just kind of vaguely approximates the aesthetic. Emperor's new clothes and all that.
Demented Omen of Masochism and
Morbidious Pathology are still pretty cool, though.