by Kurt Orzeck
Talk with a band deeply enough, to the point where they can’t help but not be candid, and you’re apt to hear them reveal that there are some in-jokes in their music that only the band members themselves will be able to appreciate, if not even notice. Gruesome take the opposite tack with their El Salvador gulag of a third record, sarcastically bestowing it with two words that are nowhere to be found on Silent Echoes. Hell, this rip-roaring record so thoroughly beats the listener into submission that Merriam-Webster might have to devise a term far more potent than “bludgeoning,” “battering,” or “abusively punishing.”
Naturally, Gruesome’s application of sarcasm to the extreme is part of the band’s charm. (Gruesome oughta savor that sentence, because never again will the word “charm” be used as a descriptor of the band. Hey, writers can have some fun with sarcasm too, right—or will the Trump Administration ridiculously and illegally sue us for using that tone of language?)
Since forming a little over a decade ago, Gruesome have proven themselves to be dyed-in-the-wool death-metal freaks—so much so, in fact, that we should rewrite that phrase as “died-in-the-wool” instead. One needn’t even hear Gruesome’s music to assess the band’s subgenre bona fides. In fact: guitarist Dan Gonzalez, guitarist/vocalist Matt Harvey, drummer Gus Rios and bassist Robin Mazen called their project a Death cover band out of the gates (of hell, of course). This time around, Gruesome used Death’s 1991 album, Human, as their north star. (Note for the nerds: The length of Silent Echoes is only one minute shorter than Human, which many metalheads consider to be the album that effectively started tech-death metal.)
While the two records’ song and album titles don’t line up, they might as well: Only the most discerning death-metal denizens will be able to identify the practically indiscernible differences in guitar technique, speed, tempo, vocals and overall delivery. For all the romanticizing of the 1990s that’s happening these days, Gruesome walk the walk by imbuing Silent Echoes with a raw production sound that was common in the early part of the decade but is rarely replicated these days.
Further driving home the point that Gruesome are the Renfield to Death’s Dracula, the creation of Silent Echoes took an unexpected turn when Sean Reinert, who played drums on Human and was Rios’ best friend and mentor, died at age 48 in January 2020. After the tragedy, Gruesome decided to make Silent Echoes in tribute to Reinert, whose spirit is felt throughout the new album.
So, what we have here is a death-metal band paying tribute to a band named Death after a beloved friend died. Is that metal enough for you? In the immortal words of Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz character in Apocalypse Now: “The horror!”