Review: Racing battle machine metal within the style of declining languid melodies paced at high speed alongside thrusting percussion and roaring vocals of a muffled hiss at top volume, Gotmoor unleash a compilation of two previous releases of which the second is the more refined in style, the first citing classics of Norsecore on its way to the dominant presence of sound found on later work. Fast riffs of short phrases match geometrically balanced melodies which serve as pivotal points for multiple directions in melody, routing circular combinations toward connections through tonal continuity.
Often the falling sweep riff compound themes that distinguish a major style from which this release borrows etch a modal tendency and pace for songs outlining structure and harmony for future developments, which encircle previous ideas and deconstruct them into opposite themes resolving in their missing complements. Familiar melodic raw black metal work from Gorgoroth and Graveland can be found in the earlier EP, but as a voice emerges, it speaks to themes of ancient war and a sense of self-awareness as enlightenment toward epic action. Sentimental use of layered thematic repetition and neo-Gothic keyboard etching build tension in a method resolved best by melodic change, which occurs with the pacing and direction of a pop song to direct focus toward a cathartic distillation of major themes into a familiar pace and expectation of tonal resolution delivered through balance in phrase.
Papery shreds of vocals guide the active and dynamically rigid progression over often blasting mechanistic drums and pulsing of guitar sound and noise, as structure unfurls to complement form in a unification of style with concept through illustration in the free yet playful while alienated motion of these pieces. More refined songs use greater variance in phrase and more focused, centralized songwriting to emphasize emotional connections between content and listener.
While clearly enroute to something greater, the first work stands on its for finding a voice within blasting melodic metal that is both generously exploratory in sonority and savage in slicing, reductive leaps of phrase and rhythmic emphasis. Developing on this foundation, the second prowls as a vision of chaotic recurrence made current by essential conflict with the world, exploring the principles of universal reductivism in riffwriting. Taken together the two show the almost joyful but battle-driven world of these Belgian black metal makers.
