Reviews list for Gulch - Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress (2020)

This is the first full length release by California based metalcore band Gulch and has been receiving a lot of positive praise from critics. To me I found this very surprising considering the albums runtime is only about fifteen minutes. What could possibly be going on here to stand out this much in 2020?

Well, I'm not too sure. I think that for as aggressive and relentless as this album is, the short runtime is to its benefit. The grooves are pretty solid throughout and the howling vocal delivery is pretty damn awesome!

I say all of this because the album does not have the same sort of crispness that we expect to hear from others in the genre, specifically The Dillinger Escape Plan. This record seems to share a lot more in common with Jane Doe era Converge. For one, the production is really sloppy; the guitars have this continuous buzzing throughout the record, separate to the percussion. The bass is practically non-existent on this album, and while the percussion is impressive and mixed the best of all of the instruments, it never gets its own opportunity to shine behind the aforementioned rattling in the guitars.

The other comparison point to Converge is the song structures. I have gone on record many a times disparaging mathcore and its incessant flailing around tempo/time signature changes as hook-worthy, instead of crafting actual grooves or melodies that are recognizable beyond the avant-garde tempo stylings.

Mathcore is not my thing, nor do I think it will ever be my "thing". And this album is not going to change my mind, even if it does take some decent steps into changing my mind. A curious listen for sure, but not memorable beyond it's minor Grindcore leanings.

As much as I love metalcore, I have a bit of an issue with its hardcore cousin and death metal's sibling in the Horde family, grindcore. I'm sure many of you Horde members know what grindcore, but basically the songs are mostly under two minutes long (often even shorter) and are filled with the noise of heavily distorted guitars, bass in max-overdrive, high-speed drums, and wide-range growls/screams. Some of those elements can be found quite a lot in this album's sound, especially since only two of its songs surpass the two-minute mark. See, I wanna go hardcore but not too much to the point where it's equivalent to extra-spicy habanero peppers.

The chaos begins with the title track which is definitely an absolutely killer grind-metalcore opener. "Cries of Pleasure, Heavenly Pain" is an OK song that can please me with heavenly heavy grind-metalcore pleasure. You're probably wondering, "Looks like you're praising some of the songs so far, what the h*ll are you complaining about?!" Well stay in your seats, because the chaos gets much spicier. "Self-Inflicted Mental Terror" is a song that fits well with the title. It sounds too much like it was written by a mentally ill terrorist. "Lie, Deny, Sanctify" is definitely something that can be taken seriously, only to cause a rioting revolution. Keep it away from the children!!

And definitely keep this next song out of children's reach, "F***ing Towards Salvation", not just because of the title but also it's so f***ing intense and "slanderous" that I'm pretty sure Tipper Gore would faint after hearing it. "All Fall Down the Well" is pretty much a death(grind)trap for the well Timmy is trapped in. "Shallow Reflective Pools of Guilt" is just too shallow. And finally, "Sin in My Heart" is a longer closing song that reminds of the earlier Converge in a nice way. I like that!

Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress is a beyond intense grind-metalcore album that even I can't handle. This album is strange in the intensity of sound and also the cover artwork. Maybe it would be slightly better if all the songs were put together in a 16-minute suite. Either way, I'll just redirect this album to people who like both grindcore and non-melodic metalcore. They might enjoy this extra-spicy habanero hardcore chaos....

Favorites: "Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress", "Sin in My Heart"