In direct acknowledgement of their collective sources of inspiration Toronto, Ontario-based death metal quartet GUTVOID emphasize their own distinctive application while enriching the path forward, extrapolating their dark essence into four pieces that’ve been (stylistically) enlarged to show detail. Incorporating themes from science fiction literature and a deep pool of interest from sub-genre music this latest mLP, ‘Breathing Obelisk‘, intends to remedy the mélange effect often found in new-old school death metal today, instead insisting upon its own personally developed verve and voice. The result is a feast of extremes sure to drawn new folks into their cause, please their ‘ready knowing fandom, and a varietal showing which does well to pull the ear into focus upon four of their most glaring niche-specific attributes.

Gutvoid formed circa 2019 between Brendan Dean (Fathomless Ritual, Pukewraith) and Daniel Bonofiglio (Intestinal Hex) who’d known each other since about 2004 having played in an Opeth inspired progressive death metal band, Adytum, together throughout the second half of that decade. Both had been at work on prog-metal projects beyond that point but it wasn’t until they’d teamed up for a more pure death metal band, musing on the name to start, that their interests conjoined into a blueprint for the path forward. Their interest in Finnish death metal (a la Krypts, Demigod) was pronounced but they’d also locked into other outer-thinkers (Gorguts, Timeghoul) in both modern and ancient death metal conscious of the space-farers and muck divers alike from the New York and Toronto spheres at present. That core duo would impress me from the moment I’d first cracked into “Entranced by a Frozen Dawn” from the 2019 self-released EP ‘Astral Bestiary‘ but only once I’d heard Blood Harvest‘s reissue of it in early 2020 where I’d also interviewed the band about their beginnings. You know when a band has it in them, intellect applied to their exploration of music which admires/respects canon but also seeks points where innovators and outliers have taken-on the weird and the estranged. The potential for greatness was all there, they just needed to put a band together and begin integration.

Beyond 2020 they’d gotten to work on numerous projects, releasing a boon of likely pandemic writ etchings in a pronounced flood of activity as their joint proficiency for home recordings allowed. Eventually they’d onboarded bassist Justin Boehm (Acid Shower) and drummer D.W. Lee (Exsanguinate) for their indomitable debut full-length (‘Durance of Lightless Horizons‘, 2022) which I’d liked enough in review to place at #21 on my Top 100 Albums of the Year. It was easily one of my most listened-to albums of that year and it still feels amazing to return to it as a brilliant production, a purely dark and adventurous death metal record with a fine sense of style and aesthetic applied to its tunneling grandeur. The balance of old Finnish creep n’ grind and new spaced-classicist stretch all amounted to delivery upon the promise of their earlier work with new portals opened to both progressive and heavier-slapped realms along the way. There aren’t a lot of bands that have the conviction and the knowledge to carry an idea so far without losing the plot, without having their personae polished out in the process of production but in their case these guys exploded into a much bigger and beastly thing on a full LP.

If you’re stepping into ‘Breathing Obelisk‘ without having taken the time to settle-up with ‘Durance of Lightless Horizons‘ you’re missing out on an incredible album well worthy of obsession… but also the chance to compare and contrast where they’ve taken this quasi-experiment in four stages. There is some manner of scientific thought applied here in the sense that for this ~31 minute mLP they’ve leaned into their guiding points of inspiration and influence first separating each song into its sub-genre specific hail: Death-doom, pure death metal, prog-death/early 2000’s prog metal, and classic progressive rock. In this way they lean into each extreme as a point of exaggerating their own collective personality within those pieces of themselves, extrapolating the essence of Gutvoid in this less-than painful process. Here we get the band’s nuance given a clear loudness, an outright head-first dig into what’d otherwise appear around the edges and in the greater burl of their movements, and the result is ‘Breathing Obelisk‘ feels like a complete deepening of extremes rather than a further greying of those points of inspiration.

We won’t get these results outright without some suggestion as nearly ~10 minute opener “Swamp Consumed” goes for that Finndeath-tinged death/doom outright and kinda hits upon the Gutvoid signature pretty quick, reminding me exactly how much I like this band’s sound and their approach to gloomy, twisted and surreal death metal sounds. If you’re prone to read lyrics and liner notes, as I am, you’ll find this first song’s lyrics are inspired by Semiosis (2018) a science fiction novel from author Sue Burke where an uneasy symbiotic relationship forms between humans fleeing Earth and a sentient plant-like organism which inhabits an abandoned city. Without having read the book myself, Dean‘s lyrics seem to posit a point of capture by a carnivorous version of this entity and the urge to break free and fight back. Anyhow, as it turns out each of these four songs take inspiration from books the vocalist/guitarist had particularly loved where most deal with either civilizations and how they deal with the unknown. In my case this gives me a short list of contemporary novels (+ one ancient short story) to add to the reading list and that is already light years above-and-beyond what the typical death metal lyrics might ultimately serve.

Otherwise the next couple of songs follow the suggested route as “For We Are Many” is a pure death metal song in the sense that it is straight-forward in its push, almost to the point that by the time the first solo cracks off it sounds like a circa early 2000’s Immolation piece, eventually finding its uglier mainline groove beyond those first couple of minutes. Multiple vocal layers, leads trading off, and a break around ~2:43 minutes in that ensures you’ll give this song pause and pay attention each time it hits… all of this makes for something more visceral, loose at the shoulders than Gutvoid typically are and I like that they’re slinging it like this on this song as it feels like they’ve opened the door to a different kind of ripping movement here; “When the Living Dome Opens” is their own vision of prog-death where their old and new school ideals collide in brilliant ways and of course you know they’re brilliant in approach of this type of stuff if you’d followed Dean‘s Fathomless Ritual and Bonofiglio‘s Intestinal Hex. This is of course a bit different as we get a bit of ‘Obscura‘ in there with the more ethereal prog-metal swerve applied. At that point one could figure they could probably pull off a Spiral Architect song based on the chops available but of course they’ve gone in much heavier, knotted direction for this song which bases itself in the death metal realm foremost.

Closing piece “Shodar” particularly caught my attention not only for its reference to Fault (James Tiptree Jr., 1968), a short story where a stranger in a strange land is punished out of time and space for an altercation gone wrong, but also its dive into various points of inspiration taken from 80’s progressive rock. As is the case with the other three songs on this mLP they can’t help but sound like Gutvoid no matter how much they’ve exaggerated any one point of influence/inspiration and I believe that is the desired outcome, that they can lean into any one observable aspect one might peck out of ‘Durance of Lightless Horizons‘ and its deeper-set nuance while still retaining their own spin applied. This is less a proving ground for their modus and more a deeper exploration of it and the results appear enriching. So will they hit more points of springing riff trade off, as we find around ~3:18 minutes into the closer, on their second LP? I figure they’ve already parsed and chosen what works best on this mLP going forward as they’ve always been a step ahead, self-aware but also self-directed in their connection made between distinct death metal old-and-new.

In terms of the listening experience each of these songs works in their progression from sprawling, massive swings to various points of detailed surrealism and on to a few more unexpected turns taken later on. The flow from point to point is natural in the sense that “When the Living Dome Opens” still feels entirely related to what they were doing on “Swamp Consumed” though the variety inherent to the design of this record is still loudly served. Their work is evocative of their general signature throughout, the point of the record appears to emphasize this as its major goal, and in every case we find the horror and the hammer of their work emphasized by a slightly more ruddy, darker production value via home studio recordings and the capture of the rhythm section via Sean Pearson over at Boxcar Studios. Though this feels more “live” and cognizant of room noise in terms of the drums we lose some of the sleekness of their LP for the sake of something more organic, ‘real’ sounding in practice this time around. It works best for my own taste when they’re really bashing at the bigger jammed motions of “When the Living Dome Opens”.

As we connect all four sides of their proposed obelisk and stare deeply in to the (likely desaturated?) gouache cover artwork from Brazilian artist Marcio Blasphemator their vision for the evolution of Gutvoid becomes more clear in the overarching steps taken through each side of the greater prism. They’ve got the weird old school edge in the back of their minds but also a proficiency and vision which stacks up with the best of death metal available today. The outcome is yet dark and potent as one’d want as they approach this ‘extra’ level here, leaning into their major points of inspiration for effect. Do we know the band better having taken this trip with them? Yes, and I think the process likely helped them hone in on thier where to exaggerate and what buttons to press going forward based on these impressive results. As a fan of these guys more-or-less from the get-go I’d enjoy this one from the first listen, especially connecting with the opener to start. Though I’d recommend their debut as the foundation to build upon I’d still felt like this mLP could serve as a reasonable introduction to their work, an interesting addendum to the path presented by their debut as they seek to push further into both the known and the unknown. It all bodes well for the second LP, which they’ve suggested is already in the works. A very high recommendation.

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