Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Gorguts - Considered Dead (1991)

It is hard to remember Gorguts as anything other than boundary pushing, avant-grade and unique purveyors of some of the most challenging music out there. But everybody has to start somewhere and their debut was a straight up death metal record. No evidence was shown in 1991 of much of anything in the way of technicality with the focus instead being on the release of the familiar sound that was infecting much of the metal world in the early nineties.

It was well-played stuff most definitely with the band having retained three quarters of the line up from the ’89 demo …And Then Comes Lividity barring the replacement of Chouinard on guitar by Sylvain Marcoux. Here on the debut full-length there were obvious Florida influences in terms of the established death metal scene which is grest to hear on an album from a Canadian band that clearly knew the genre they were entering into very well.

By no means should this be viewed as an inferior release in the extensive and increasingly technical (from the next album onwards) albums of one of the grestest death metal bands ever to tread foot on the earth.  Considered Dead does what most bands fail to achieve on their debuts, making a splash in an established scene without being bloated or turgid.  In a world that was accepting the inevitable infection of death metal, the debut from Gorguts was reliant only on established traits within the genre.  It wasn't interested in being that different because the ability of the musicians was more than sufficient to lay down this excellent foundation stone for the band to build their discography from.

As they drifted into their follow up release you could still hear the influence of Considered Dead throughout The Erosion of Sanity giving a real rooted and grounded feel to the added technicality they were adding at that time.  For a fan of the band throughout their career the importance of the debut album from Lemay and company cannot be underestimated.