Imbued nail to tail with the incurable stench of putrescine and hungered to the point of madness by the feast left to rot there’d been no resistance left in the skulls behind Kolbotn, Norway-based duo GOUGE as they’d crawl back into morbid thrashing death for a short but white-hot EP after a decade-long absence. Just as its title suggests ‘Pure Deathfuck‘ is a raw, unbothered rut through the macabre realm of death metal’s most primitive late 80’s state where gore, murder and rot rule their basement-dwelling craft. No progress, no off-topic theme or newfangled hifalutin melody persists in mind as these primal acts rattle off quick amidst declarations of horrified carnage and leave a mangled corpse.

Gouge formed circa 2012 at a time of peak creative runoff for drummer Herman Holen and vocalist, guitarist, bassist Christoffer Bråthen (Avmakt) both of whom featured in black-thrashers Condor at the time and formed heavy rock troupe Flight nearby. In the early 2010’s there were a shit-ton of new bands playing Autopsy-styled death metal due to their revival but these folks rolled it further back to the thrashing and primitive side of North American death metal sounds with their first EP (‘Doomed to Death‘, 2012) not quite taking on Hellhammer level rhythms but their sound referenced the grinding and thrashing edge of late 80’s death metal via Repulsion and Death Strike respectively. Short, snarling and unblinking hardcore punk fueled pieces would become their signature as their debut LP (‘Beyond Death‘, 2015) unleashed, having changed very little in their approach beyond their first EP.

That roughshod grindcore and thrash informed early death metal slap still applies ten years beyond the band’s debut with ‘Pure Deathfuck‘, five songs spread within a scant ~12 minutes of ripping death. Beyond a distant, relatively quiet rehearsal/demo grade recording and more severe Slaughter-handed vibe in their riff progressions (see: “Sadist”, “Maggoteyes”) they’ve changed next to nothing about their approach in the interim. Bråthen‘s vocals still carry the same gore spitting, maniac Reifert-esque rushed cadence to suit the urgent spank of their rhythms and each song burns through its nuance as immediately as possible.

Nothing all that sentimental or even novel happens in the space of these five songs as they simply cut through as fast as possible. “Sadist” has some wild leads, “Enemies” tries out half a doom riff a few times, and closer “Dead/Kingdom of Brutal Death” pulls both off within its extended length; If you’re not convinced they’ve still got it off the rip, and opener “Putrefaction of the Dead” should be clear enough indication they do, the entirety of ‘Doomed to Death‘ is included on the CD version of ‘Pure Deathfuck‘ and while that older recording is slightly different it features pretty seamlessly as the second half of the experience.

Any fan of 80’s death metal primitivism should appreciate the simple, high-energetic brutality and general authenticity of Gouge‘s take outright. If you’re unfamiliar with the cause then ‘Pure Deathfuck‘ is as good a starting place as any since you’ll find each of their three major recordings entirely consistent, this one is merely the latest. As a returning fan I’d appreciated that they’d applied zero modernization to their work, nothing was polished up to account for any temporal distance in between, as sticking to their guns goes a long way toward a zombified ‘old school’ sound. A moderately high recommendation.

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