Review by Ben for Gorguts - The Erosion of Sanity (1993)

Monstrous technical death metal album filled with creativity and darkness.

Erosion of Sanity picks up where Considered Dead left us with a twist of Effigy of Forgotten. That's what I had in mind when coming to review this beast of an album. I very much enjoyed Considered Dead, but Erosion of Sanity is miles ahead of it when it comes to technicality, brutality and sheer darkness. Suffocation's debut clearly had an influence on these Canadian's song writing between albums as there is a whole bunch of brutal death metal styled rhythms and time changes that simply weren't there before. This is one seriously monstrous sounding album that will take a few spins to really come to grips with.

The musicianship is stunning! The drumming is extremely varied and creative, never falling into repetitive blast beat territory. Luc’s vocals are great as usual, managing to be brutal yet decipherable throughout. The bass is audible and a major instrument which isn’t something I can say for many albums of this ilk (in most cases I can’t even distinguish it). The guitar rhythms and leads are all amazing technically and audibly. The excitement level that this album reaches is hard to match and when you add an excellent crisp production, intelligent, intriguing lyrics and Dan Seagrave’s typically awesome artwork, you get a damn essential death metal release. The absolute highlight is Condemned to Obscurity (I absolute love that whacked out riff) and Orphans of Sickness and Dormant Misery are gold too. If you like your death metal brutal yet creative, check out Erosions of Sanity. Just make sure you give it a few listens to let it get its claws in.