A year after giving themselves a musical makeover in their album MONSTER, Girugamesh has returned with the mini-album Gravitation. This album focuses on subtly reforming the band's newer mixture of breakbeat, djent, dubstep, and progressive metal into a slightly more traditional Girugamesh sound. Let's take a look at Girugamesh's latest step in the right direction.
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| Gravitation Cover |
Tracklist:
1. Go Ahead
2. Gravitation
3. Not Found
4. Reflection
5. Vortex
Gravitation takes the sounds introduced in MONSTER and re-imagines their use in as many ways as possible. The mini-album feels like it was used by Girugamesh as a tool to further blend their newer and older styles together. As a result, the five tracks on this album have many different elements from the band's last few albums mixed into them, but with an emphasis on preserving the newer MONSTER sound.
Gravitation leads off with "Go Ahead", an interesting song that draws influences from both melodic rock and metalcore. The interesting use of synthesizer at the beginning of the song and the verses' cadence contrast starkly with vocalist's screaming and a solid breakdown. It's a very intriguing song that serves as a strong start for the album. The title track mixes light and heavy elements from past Girugamesh sounds into the most epic track on the album. The melodic and screaming vocals are mixed together very well, and the instrumentation is frantic-yet-controlled.. "Gravitation" covers literally every sound that Girugamesh has to offer—from screaming to rapping, from breakdowns to acoustic guitar. Yet in spite of its wide range, "Gravitation" is the most focused and tightly-orchestrated track on the album. The successful packaging of so many sounds into such a solid lead track might be Girugamesh's biggest accomplishment in this release.
Gravitation leads off with "Go Ahead", an interesting song that draws influences from both melodic rock and metalcore. The interesting use of synthesizer at the beginning of the song and the verses' cadence contrast starkly with vocalist's screaming and a solid breakdown. It's a very intriguing song that serves as a strong start for the album. The title track mixes light and heavy elements from past Girugamesh sounds into the most epic track on the album. The melodic and screaming vocals are mixed together very well, and the instrumentation is frantic-yet-controlled.. "Gravitation" covers literally every sound that Girugamesh has to offer—from screaming to rapping, from breakdowns to acoustic guitar. Yet in spite of its wide range, "Gravitation" is the most focused and tightly-orchestrated track on the album. The successful packaging of so many sounds into such a solid lead track might be Girugamesh's biggest accomplishment in this release.
The remaining three tracks largely focus on playing around with the new MONSTER sound. "Not Found" fuses a pop-punk format with heavy djent sounds and screaming, similar to how "Bad End Dream" did on the MONSTER album. It has a catchy sound and solid screaming, but the chorus does get a little old. The verses in "Reflection" sport a skillful trade-off of between melodic singing and intense screaming. The rap/scream section of the breakdown is a little odd, but it serves to spike up the energy of the song in an appropriate way. Also noticeable is the song's fast and tight instrumentation. "Vortex" is the "let loose" track on the album, and Girugamesh uses it as an opportunity to pile on plenty of screaming, heavy guitars, and double bass drumming. There's nothing too new here (save for a much more intense contribution from the drummer), but it's still a fun track to listen to.
Overall, Gravitation strikes an excellent balance between presentation and experimentation. "Go Ahead" and "Gravitation" are fantastic additions to Girugamesh's library. The band took some stylistic risks with these two tracks and it paid off. While the last three tracks on the album are not as solid as the first two, they're still fun to listen to, and allow Girugamesh the opportunity to experiment and improve their sound. Gravitation is a calculated and successful step forward for Girugamesh, and I look forward to seeing more new and interesting blends of this band's style in the future.
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Special thanks to Gan-Shin Records for providing the music!
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