Gory Blister – Earth-Sick (2012)

Making their contribution to the highly exciting Technical Death Metal scene, today we have Italy’s Gory Blister and their latest full-length release “Earth-Sick”. With a name more apt for a Grindcore band, this Italian band took us by surprise with their high energy songs and blistering drumming. Deliver 10 tracks of well executed music, this band will surely make some noise in this very crowded genre.

Opening with the deceiving “The Breeding (intro)” track, we thought we will reviewing a Melodic Power Metal album instead. However, with “Earthsick” things get down and dirty with some heavy riffing and intense growls. The band style borders between Melodic DM and Technical DM with some very impressive speed ups, but never as intense and powerful as bands like Obscura and Spawn of Possession.

With a very strong opening “Plague and Pray” keeps things very furiously paced with some excellent melodic passages. The band’s strengths lie on the excellent and hyper-fast drumming that nicely sits behind the very melodic and complexly crafted guitar work. “Decanted Embryos”, “Dominant Genetics”, and “H.I.V” deliver more high-octane sections, but they also seem to have a very similar feel to each other. This shows consistency and a common ground for the band’s own sound, but it also hurts them in the creativity department.

“World Damnatomy” features one of our favorite closings in the album, making it yet another well-crafted and engaging song that showcases the band’s musical quality. IF you are looking for down and dirty brutality, “Soul-Bourne Maladies” is a pretty straight forward DM piece that will have you moshing in no time. Just before closing with an instrumental/atmospheric intro, “Serpent Verse” delivers one last assault with a very atmospheric and more melodic opening.

If you like Technical Death Metal with more emphasis on the melody than on playing 2000 notes per minute, “Earth-Sick” is surely a release you will appreciate. Gory Blister does a great job in crafting well-structured songs that will engage the listener and never let go. We highly recommend this album for any fan of well-constructed music with a high level of complexity and melody.

Release: April 16th, 2012

Country: Italy