Aswirl in its light-devouring shadowed rise the nebular spectre of Toronto, Ontario-based death metal quartet GUTVOID is yet illuminant as they transgress the abyss into transformation on this inspired sophomore full-length album. Buried within the swelling tides of its doomed, surrealistic rhythms ‘Liminal Shrines‘ both iterates and evolves the band’s blurring of lines between obscure ‘old school’ progressive and atmospheric death characteristics. Somewhere in the barreling, roaring and lead-cracking aplomb of their work they’ve honed the signature marked on their previous album into something even more resplendent in its darkness.

Gutvoid formed back in 2019 by way of guitarist/vocalist Brendan Dean (Fathomless Ritual) and guitarist Daniel Bonofiglio (Intestinal Hex) with the goal of creating some manner of death metal together per inspiration loosely gathered from Finnish ‘old school’ death, modern groups like Blood Incantation, as well as classic Gorguts to start. Rooted in themes of surreal science fiction alongside cosmic/body horror the evolution of the band’s personage was rapid as they’d expanded to a live-capable quartet and realized their impressive debut LP (‘Durance of Lightless Horizons‘, 2022). Already a big fan of the band, I’d reviewed that first record favorably before setting it at #21 on my Top 100 Albums of the Year. Amidst many glowing remarks I’d praised their unique balance of auld standards and noveau enrichment, a cohesion which was inherently illustrative beyond the norm: “the most signature aspect of [Gutvoid‘s] sound finds each song illustrating a scene, a world and some manner of tormented landscape within the motion of its often mid-paced, elongated phrasing.” and this thought carries over directly into this new album.

The eerily ‘old school’ technical motion and patiently yearning melodic gloom of Gutvoid‘s work had merged and realized their original vision per that first album but it was their follow-up EP (‘Breathing Obelisk‘, 2024) that’d begin exploring traits and strengths inherent to the full quartet. Those intentional exaggerations of form via shared interest intended to reflect their union for the sake of additional character and this meant that some of the elements of death/doom metal, progressive rock and beyond now translate directly into what they’ve accomplished on this new album. Presented as the first part of a conceptual diptych, the general philosophy presented within ‘Liminal Shrines‘ is inherently progressive but not deleterious in that their work is additive, built upon with increasingly ambitious statement.

What pours from above accumulates below… boiling into a more pungent, viscous sludge as it concentrates. This is how I’d describe the listening experience as ‘Liminal Shrines‘ begins toppling downward in steady flow ’til their efforts thicken, slowing unto increasingly extended pieces over the course of its ~49 minute spread. To start opener “Spell Reliquary” bears the steadily barreling riffcraft and lucid melodic leads that’d characterized ‘Durance of Lightless Horizons‘, something like the bounding dark lustre of early Hooded Menace with a taste for generational variations on ‘Nespithe‘ threatening to weird up their Bolt Thrower-like command. When the growling gnarl at the heart of Gutvoid‘s earliest sound asserts itself (re: beyond ~3:40 minutes or so) it coincides with more technically shot flow, a ramping of intensity ’til the ~4:29 minute mark where the band breaks into some the more thrillingly executed movements on the album, wheeling between two extremes in rapid succession.

“Smothering Sea” is the moment the intestines drop through the pelvic floor, the Demilichian current blinking its thousand slime eyed froth into crookedly steering grooves as the surrealistic progressive death’s head of Gutvoid‘s reach is exaggerated into swirling mass. Though the tangled kinetic sway of this song is a high point of its own per its rhythmic unease it is the lead guitars and their unusual threading throughout the song which becomes a more clear signature of the band’s work with every application. Production values here afford plenty of low end, a low struck but upward crashing drum sound, and strong precision on the multi-layered guitar sound in general as all seems to accentuate the lead guitars which now sear through the richness of the band’s collective heft even more hotly as a key feature.

This carries through the remainder of the album with a sort of unearthly yet progressive brightness which is emphasized within the wrangling, rocking and illuminant leads on “Lead Me Beyond the Sleeping I”, the first of two ~twelve minute closing pieces which bulk out Side B. This is where the shred nerd side of the guitarists is allowed maximum elbow room to wail and wrench through their wares, an ambition which’d been hinted at on the previous album but now appears fleshier, louder in feature as a prime point of interest. The peak of this comes around ~7:36 minutes in as Gutvoid break through ramping chorale, one of the more characteristic examples of their surreal directive finding a “hook” of sorts. There are yet riffs worthy of mention here but their leading stance is overthrown ’til the sludgier, gunk-heavy plow of closer “Chasm of Displaced Souls” reclaims the roar and rhythm of it all as the caustic chemical scorch at the bottom of their cauldron. As suggested the full listen only increases in its density as the album progresses, ensuring their grand finale is one of the more dense almost Immolation-esque swipes taken.

Beyond the moment-to-moment action of ‘Liminal Shrines‘ lies its illustrative depth where Gutvoid‘s lyrics are most definitely the product of both science fiction readership and an understanding of death metal apropos phrasing, never too busied by verbosity and instead geared toward action rather than ultra-specific lore. The aesthetic here is once again abstract yet scenic, complimenting the burning tower of the first album with some manner of sun-expressed daemonic invasion via cover art by Kjell Åge Meland. Much as packaging and lyricism won’t matter to many fans in passing these elements are not thoughtless placeholders but words and images which accentuate the experience, liven it per their accompaniment unto an above-average standard. That observation’d carry over to the whole of the experience wherein one could simply enjoy the weirding death metal clobber and shred available and be sated yet the holistic experience only impresses the more attentive and curious the listener remains. A very high recommendation.

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