Review by Daniel for Gorefest - Erase (1994)

I've been a bit of a fan of Dutch death metallers Gorefest since very early on in their recording career which has seen them becoming an artist that I've followed with keen interest throughout most of their existence. They did lose me for a period during the late 1990's when their transition towards more of a death 'n' roll sound reached its ultimate culmination but their early days as a chunky death metal band were unanimously rewarding with 1990's "Horrors in a Retarded Mind" demo tape, 1991's "Mindloss" debut album & 1992's "False" sophomore record all being pretty interesting, if not particularly essential. "False" has always been my favourite of Gorefest's studio albums but I was recently left a little disappointed when my latest revisit only resulted in a 3.5-star rating which left me wondering whether I'd overrated Gorefest a touch over the years. At that point I committed to reexamining 1994's "Erase" third album which was a record that I spent a fair bit of time with at the time of release but haven't returned to since. My memories of it were largely positive but I've always considered it to be the point in which Gorefest started their death 'n' roll transition which culminated in 1998's disappointing "Chapter 13" fifth full-length & that would perhaps explain why I haven't been so keen to return to "Erase". Regardless, I held significant hope for it going into my first listen as I remembered it being pretty solid in its own right.

"Erase" would be Gorefest's second album for the illustrious Nuclear Blast label & would see them venturing outside of the Netherlands for the recording sessions for the first time, this time choosing to record in Germany at T & T Studio in Gelsenkirchen with English producer Pete Coleman who had made a name for himself working behind the mixing desk for bands like Cancer, Demon, Discharge, Disincarnate, Napalm Death & Paradise Lost. The result is another heavy-weight death metal record with a thick down-tuned guitar tune & a bottom-heavy rhythm section. I love the bass guitar tone & the depth that's afforded to the toms & kick drum with the snare drum being really punchy, all of which works really well in support of bassist Jan-Chris de Koeijer's ultra-deep death grunts. The band lineup had remained stable from the one that recorded "False" two years earlier which is a real positive that has seen Gorefest able to continue their musical development unhindered. The guitar solos of Boudewijn Bonebakker that were arguably the low point of "False" have improved significantly here, still being fairly basic from a technical point of view but this time having much more direction & structure than they did on "False". The drumming of Ed Warby (Demiurg/Elegy/Hail of Bullets/The 11th Hour) is rock-solid too & gives the rest of the instrumentalists a beautiful platform with which to work off. He never over-plays his hand here & clearly knew the true meaning of the term "rhythm section".

Gorefest's sound definitely wasn't as deathly on "Erase" as it was on their previous work & it's easy to see why some fans may have been a little put off by the overall direction. Unlike some critics, I wouldn't say that it was a death 'n' roll record as such though. It's still a death metal release for mine but it's certainly one that showcases a fair amount of groove in its controlled & unanimously mid-paced approach. I feel that Carcass' classic 1993 fourth album "Heartwork" has played a significant role in the riff structures on "Erase" actually, not in a melodic sense but in the way they've structured their riffs, always keeping things simple & open in order to maximize the impact of the song-writing. Entombed's "Wolverine Blues" is another record that I find myself calling upon as a point of reference while the more pure groove metal riffs have me reaching for comparisons to California's Machine Head. It all works very nicely although I will say that de Koeijer's vocals don't sit as comfortably over this sound as they did over the more intense death metal of their roots which does limit the appeal of the album a touch. The more intense sections (such as the beautifully executed blast beat riff on "Peace of Paper") definitely see me perking up a lot which is an indication of where my allegiances lie but the band use those parts well in order to create climaxes within their more controlled song structures.

The tracklisting is generally pretty consistent with only the slightly clunky "I Walk My Way" failing to capture my attention. The more hard-hitting & deathly tracks tend to be the ones that grab me more than the rest with the excellent title track, the previously mentioned "Peace of Paper" & the brooding downtempo atmosphere of "Goddess in Black" being the clear standouts. The rest of the material is all pretty entertaining but rarely sees me wanting to stand up & applaud & I think that's the thing that hinders the album's chances of becoming a genuine favourite. It's all professionally written & produced but it's also fairly easy-listening when it comes to extreme metal, instead seeming to target the same sort of crossover appeal that the Carcass & Entombed records I mentioned earlier managed to gain. It does a pretty reasonable job at it too as I've bought into what its selling & that's no easy feat when it comes to my fairly extreme taste profile. But I can't deny that the heights that it's possible to take me to with this sound are limited by the very same thing that gives "Erase" the potential to break through the boundaries of the death metal audience i.e. its accessibility.

"Erase" is another decent death metal record from Gorefest but, as with all of their previous material, I still find myself falling short of claiming it as an essential one. There's no doubt that they were a well-oiled machine who knew what they were doing but they simply can't crack into that second-tier consistently enough to see me wanting to return to them very often. In saying that, I do think that "Erase" is a touch underrated because it doesn't sit all that far behind Gorefest's more obviously deathly early works in terms of quality in my opinion. I'm actually surprised that it didn't make more of a fist of cracking into more commercial metal market to be honest but I think some of that is due to de Koeijer's vocals in all honesty as they're hardly Top of the Pops stuff now, are they?

For fans of Pungent Stench, Entombed & "Heartwork"-era Carcass.