Saturday 24 February 2018

GURT - SKULLOSSUS (Album Review)


Release date: May 01st 2017. Label: When Planets Collide. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

SKULLOSSUS  – Tracklisting

1.Welcome to the Shit Show 01:15
2.Gimme the Night, Any Day 06:04
3.Battlepants 04:14
4.Double Barrelled Shot-pun 03:19
5.The Crotch Wobbler 05:25
6.Existence is Pain 01:46
7.Broken Heart Heroin Man 01:22
8.Meowing at the Fridge 04:01
9.Jon Garseeya Later 04:41
10.The Ballad of Tom Stones and Reg Montagne (Part 1) 05:24
11.The Ballad of Tom Stones and Reg Montagne (Part 2) 02:15

Members

Gareth Kelly - Growth - Mouth.
Rich Williams - Sedulurt - Riffmonster.
Dave Blakemore - Spice - Bassmaster.
Bill Jacobs - The Scorpion - Bashing.

Review

UK Sludge/Doom Metallers GURT released their latest album SKULLOSSUS last year. I missed it first time round and I apologize to the band not reviewing their album when it came out originally.

SKULLOSSUS is perhaps darker than their previous album. The vocals from Gareth are perhaps slightly more menacing and the riffs can be very progressive at times. It's still good to see GURT's dark sense of humour living on through their song titles and some of the lyrics contained on the album.

The album has quite a heavy NOLA Sludge presence especially on songs such as: “Gimme The Night, Any Day”, Battlepants, The Crotch Wobbler, Meowing At The Fridge and the sublime two part epic – The Ballad of Tom Stones and Reg Montagne.

I admire GURT's drive and tenacity on creating a heavier style of Doom/Sludge Metal that goes against their earlier “Party-Doom” releases. Underneath the crazy song titles, GURT have unleashed a nightmarish style of Doom/Sludge sounds with some nasty riffs waiting to be discovered. The instrumental work is very precise with the band playing different styles of Sludge/Doom Metal throughout the album.

The production is very good indeed as GURT sound like they mean business here. It can be quite theatrical at times but the album has it's fair share of depressing sounding moments as well. GURT always try to bridge the gap between dark humour and playing a more realistic sound compared to other bands within the UK Doom/Sludge Metal scene.

SKULLOSSUS even sees GURT venture into DIY PUNK style riffs on certain parts of the album. I will admit I wasn't expecting to enjoy this album at all. I don't know why as I've always enjoyed GURT's music. And boy was I wrong. As SKULLOSSUS works on so many different levels. Though the main one for me is that this album will ENTERTAIN THE SHEER FUCKING HELL OUT OF YOU!!!

This album won't be for everyone. However if you're a fan of bands such as Weedeater and Dopethrone then GURT will be the band for you to party into the night and piss-off your neighbours with.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe