siLLy puPPy GORGUTS decided to let the creation of their new musical language on the unique and bizarre “Obscura” to speak for itself and only take some of the ideas they came up with on that release and fuse them with some of the more accessible sounds they developed on their first two releases. FROM WISDOM TO HATE is their 4th album and does just that. It basically takes the accessible traits of their early albums such as more recognizable rhythms and brutal harmonies and marry them with some of the dissonance and strangeness of “Obscura.” The result is a middle-of-the-road sounding album that works quite well. In addition to these two styles merging, Luc Lemay and his band add some touches of atmosphere to the compositions giving them a slicker feel but never compromising the brutal monstrous feel of the metal itself.

The 4th track “The Quest For Equilibrium” stands out because the intro has a particular orchestrated movie soundtrack feel before bursting into the furious tech death metal. This is new for the band and wouldn't be fully realized until the track “The Battle Of Chambo” on their 2013 “Colored Sands” release. This would also be the one and only album for drummer Steve MacDonald who would succumb to depression and take his own life causing the band to call it quits.

I find this to be a very high quality release from GORGUTS which manages to successfully fuse the past with new ideas and make an album that is not only less alienating than “Obscura” but respectfully let that album stand on its own instead of releasing another album just like it. Since Lemay and bassist Steve Cloutier are the only musicians to play on both albums it was probably easier to create a new sound. After disbanding Lemay would team up with Steeve Hurdle (guitarist on “Obscura”) to join the band Negativa after which they would release its one EP in 2006.

Wilytank So, it's been a few months since my review of Gorguts' 'Obscura' was published. Surely by now I must understand the album for the musical genius and divinity that it is and change my mind about the negative score I gave it, yes? No. I have not gone back to that album since the review for the simple reason that I refuse to listen to terrible music more than I need to. However, it's time to leave the past to the past. I have moved on to their followup album, 'From Wisdom to Hate', which is a great improvement over 'Obscura'. Unfortunately, that still does not make it very good.

First, I'm pleased to say that the production has improved and it's a lot more apparent that the guys in Gorguts are interested in actually playing their music to an actual key than making noise with the guitar strings. This coincides with the album's whole style which now sounds like a sort of post death metal album influenced by parts of "Nostalgia", one of the better pieces from 'Obscura'. With this particular concept, Gorguts have showed some promise. This post-metal concept is a lot more likeable than the "dissonant" noise that was existent in 'Obscura'.

What's the problem then? Why is this score rather low? The problem is how Gorguts actually executes this concept. As the album goes on, it just really seems to drag with all the slower paced riffs that I begin to feel like the playing is just really uninspired that it just drains my attention to the point of boredom. It gets worse when I look at a more modern example: Ulcerate. When I listen to 'Everything Is Fire' or 'The Destroyers of All', I get this sense of nihility mixed with a little misanthropy to make a really negative sounding atmosphere. I'm just not getting that here on 'From Wisdom to Hate'. The thematic elements are drastically different between the two. While Ulcerate have a rather negative view on the human condition, 'From Wisdom to Hate''s lyrics contain some bullshit about human transcendence. I get the feeling from the piece "Unearthing the Past" and "Elusive Treasures that Luc Lemay wanted to be an archaeologist before becoming a musician because both of those songs basically talk about how cool archaeology is.

The point I'm trying to make is that this post death metal style of music doesn't work as well in the setting that Gorguts presents here on 'From Wisdom to Hate'. Death metal tends to be much better when it has more negative energy. Not to say I don't appreciate Gorguts' change in style to something better than 'Obscura', but better does not equal good. At the publishing time of this review the band hasn't put out anything since this album; but even with the amount of time they would have had to change things up further, I'm not too enthusiastic as to what the product will be.