February 2024 - Feature Release - The Horde Edition
Another month flies by, which means it's time to select a new feature release for The Horde. As it's my turn to choose, I've selected Gorephilia's In the Eye of Nothing album from 2020. I'd never heard of this band when I selected this album in a Horde draft a year or so back. It was immediately apparent that Gorephilia are fans of Morbid Angel, as there's a strong Domination-period vibe to this release. The album overall feels like it could have come from the 90s, and given my obsession with that decade, it's no surprise that I've found myself returning to In the Eye of Nothing numerous times. Hopefully there are some Academy attendees that enjoy this as much as I do.
It would be great to read what you all think of it either below or in review format.
https://metal.academy/releases/23812
Wow! I've gotta say that the third full-length from these Finnish death metallers has well & truly blown me away which was perhaps somewhat inevitable given that it falls so clearly within my musical comfort zone. Gorephilia offer a dark & dank take on the classic 1990's death metal model with very little in the way of invention however they simply go about their craft so efficiently & effectively that I'm left feeling similar feelings to those that I first felt as an early teenager while discovering this great genre to begin with. The main influence is clearly classic Morbid Angel although (unlike Ben) I'd suggest that the era in question sits closer to "Blessed Are The Sick" & "Covenant" than it does to "Domination". Its actually pretty obvious a lot of the time too but the execution is nothing short of splendid which gives Gorephilia a strong sense of class & pedigree. Plus, there are a few more strings to Gorephilia's bow than that as they also possess a darker, murkier & slightly doomy Immolation/Incantation vibe that drags the atmosphere deeper into graveyard territory.
The guitar solos are perhaps the weak point as they lack a little finesse & often cross over into out-of-key territory but not in a way that feels intentional. It's more from a lack of understanding. The battering blast-beats, swampy yet powerful guitar tone & monstrous death growls more than make up for them though with the quality of the song-writing improving noticeably as the tracklisting progresses. "Devotion Upon the Worm", "Not for the Weak" & closer "Ark of the Undecipherable" are all devastating examples of modern death metal but the atmospheric interlude "Death Dream" is perhaps my favourite inclusion with its clean guitar arpeggios & eerie yet quite beautiful lead work providing a lovely change of scene before the final deathly assault. "In The Eye Of Nothing" is everything that a death metal band should aspire to be in my opinion & has been so successful in its undertaking that I'd even go so far as to sit it right alongside its more celebrated influences at the table of death metal's more elite performers.
4.5/5