If you had tried to write a review on the last Gorgasm album, you would be thinking the same thing I’m thinking now — how miserable of a situation these CIS-based extreme music journalists have put me (and themselves) in. When it comes to reviewing music which is in any way connected with death or grind, my «colleagues» (I’m putting this word in quotes because most of them haven’t studied journalism at all) suddenly become overwhelmed by such words as «ultrabrutal», «hyperfast» and «superheavy» (which are often accompanied by monotonous and tiresome epithets/comparisons). As a result, when something truly is ultrabrutal, hyperfast, and superheavy, these poor reviewers have to take up half the review trying to describe it adequately. They end up using adjectives that lost their power a long time ago, with five exclamation marks ending each sentence. Such cliches inevitably make them susceptible to derison. That’s why I had to nurture this review for awhile, as I listened to the album repeatedly in an effort to find words that adequately describe it. If you’re reading this now, it means that I’ve found these words, and there’s a review for you to read. So why don’t I finish this a-bit-too-long introduction and start reviewing the album itself?

«Bleeding Profusely» is the second release of the Chicago-based Gorgasm, which was founded in 1994. Their style can be described as ultrabrutal deathgrind with elements of melodic Swedish death and black. The purists might think that this combination is repulsive, but believe me, these «foreign» elements fit very well in Gorgasm’s music, and it never threatens to botch the deathgrind parts. In foresight of the somewhat impish questions of «advanced» extreme music fans regarding what I mean by «deathgrind» (and how I differentiate deathgrind and grinding death), allow me a few moments on this matter. Thanks to the aforementioned journalists, many fans of extreme music see almost no difference between death, brutal death, deathgrind and other adjacent styles (and this is especially true for the CIS-states). Thus, I make my own stylistic borders without a shade of a doubt. These borders are partly individual and partly overlapping with other people’s borders. In order to see the difference between deathgrind and grinding death from my point of view, one has to understand my definition of grinding hardcore (again). For me, grinding hardcore (presented by bands like Drop Dead) is an exceptionally eclectic style that combines purely hardcore parts with purely grindcore ones. If you listen to a song from a true grinding hardcore band, you’ll notice that as a rule, the music consists of two parts (although there might be just one, which only proves the fidelity of my opinion — in syncretic music like deathgrind, no crucial parts of the music can be missing during the entire song, or the music won’t be syncretic). The first part is typical hardcore in the vein of Discharge. The second is typical grindcore in the vein of early Napalm Death. These parts coexist asunder: one follows the other, but they never mix. This is what differentiates grinding hardcore from powerviolence. The same can be said about grinding death metal — if we take Mortician as a great example of brutal grinding death metal, we find that the death metal and grindcore parts coexist. However, they are isolated from one another, just as hardcore coexists with grind (yet is isolated from it) in grinding hardcore. The whole deal is easier to see because from time to time you can even mark out death metal songs (»Necrocannibal) and grind songs (»Brutally Mutilated») in Mortician’s music. Deathgrind assumes closer cooperation between the two different elements of the music, its syncretism. From my point of view, the music of Gorgasm is deathgrind, i.e., a mix of grindcore and death metal in which all the elements from both sides are closely interwoven into one organic whole, balancing between brutal death metal and grindcore.

Speaking about the music of Gorgasm, I’d like to comment on the variety of stylistic tricks used by the musicians, a very «high» playing technique, and lots of non-trivial (rhythm-wise) tricks that allow some people to call Gorgasm a techno-deathgrind band (which I partially agree with). The biggest influences heard in Gorgasm’s music are Suffocation, all Florida death metal (starting with Cannibal Corpse and ending with Malevolent Creation) and European death metal (especially Swedish) mixed with black metal. Accordingly, if you want to understand what Gorgasm is, you may mix Suffocation with Floridian death, add Swedish flavor (both death and black, in the vein of Marduk and Dark Funeral) and multiply the speed by one and a half.

The guitar parts, which are mostly death metal and grindcore in terms of style, are played very fast and very technical. Despite the overwhelming domination of deathgrind riffs, Gorgasm also use riffs that belong to modern black and European death metal. As a rule, the «European» parts specifically resemble those of the Swedish melodic variety (i.e., reinterpreted British heavy metal and American thrash from the melodic standpoint — which is also partly true for the aforementioned black metal influence). As a rule, death and grind riffs are played by both guitars in unison (mostly alongside the bass guitar), and the more «European» riffs show the guitars playing in polyphonic mode with contrasting themes. The guitar sound is very good — it’s quite heavy, no extrememies in the area of tuning, all notes can be heard if you’re quick enough to follow them. Gorgasm bassist, Russ Powell, is apparently suffering from the Suffocation and techno-death overdose. He often secedes from following the guitar parts and demonstrates his larger-than-life finger playing ability.

Despite the fact that there’s no free vocalist in the band, the vocal parts are surprisingly impressive and quite diverse. All vocalists use two or three styles: first, there’s the low-end diaphragm growl (which is traditional for death metal); and secondly, there are guttural growls, which are similar to the first in terms of tone color, but are usually sung in frequencines which range from low to almost mid-level. Thirdly, there are non-descript high and harsh screams. All vocals are powerful and convincing, no vocal cheats are used, and moreover, the level of intelligibility is a bit higher than is usual for such bands.

The drums… The drums? The drums! Dave Culross is a monster. Furthermore, Dave is an unbelievably fast and durable monster. He deserves to have a memorial erected for his amazing contribution to extreme music. For the entire duration of twenty three and a half minutes (eleven tracks), Culross displays a blastbeat fest that is so impressive, it gives the average jackhammer a run for its money. «Bleeding Profusely» has three major blastbeat variations. First, we have a death metal blastbeat a-la Cannibal Corpse, which has two bass drum hits per one snare hit (propotion-wise). Basically, one of the bass drums is hit simultaneously with the snare, after which the other is struck in between snare hits (simplified scheme without hats and cymbals: [sb-b-sb-b] — where the hi-hats and cymbals usually play along with the snare). An example of this blastbeat pattern opens the song «Lesbian Stool Orgy». Secondly, we have a specific blastbeat a-la classic Suffocation, where snare, bass drum and cymbal (or hi-hat) are all hit simultaneously. There’s no additional bass drum between them (the scheme: [sbh-sbh-sbh-sbh]). Third, we have a blastbeat of grindcore origin where the bass drum hits and snare hits alternate back and forth (simplified scheme without hats and cymbals: [s-b-s-b] — where the hi- hats and cymbals play along with either the snare or he bass drum; or may even make a triplet-based rhythmic grid). I called this blastbeat «Malevolent Creation-like» for my own reference, because it often serves as a background for guitar parts playing Swedish death-style or black metal-style (as has been typical for Malevolent Creation during their last albums). An example of such a combination can be heard on the fiftieth second of «The Essence Of Putrescence». However, it should be noted that Gorgasm’s music allows such guitar parts to be played outside the aforementioned blastbeat scheme. For example, on the thirty fifth second of «Lesbian Stool Orgy», you can hear such riffs with a Suffocation-style blastbeat. But don’t celebrate yet… there’s more! Culross somehow manages to alternate between all these blastbeats in a matter of mere seconds, often adding typical death metal double-bass patterns here and there. For example, the second song (»Morbid Overgrowth») starts with a grindcore blastbeat which alternates with Suffocation-like pattern, with nothing more than a half-second pause between each part (sometimes, even this pause is absent). The drum sound itself is possibly the best I’ve ever heard, and of course, the playing technique is absolutely flawless.

All instruments and voices are very fast, aggressive and intense — I think only Origin can reach the same level of speed, aggressiveness and intensity. Despite the fact that such intensity would normally compensate for any «primitive» themes, they are quite complicated and non-trivial. The themes are quickly interchanged, and the transitions between them are quite fluent. No single composition scheme applies to every song. The songs are short (with an average length of around two minutes), but they contain enough thematic segments to fill a fourty-minute CD. Better yet, the result isn’t monotonous or repetitive.

If you still aren’t getting my point, let me state it clearly: this CD is -vitally- essential to all who are partial to death and grind. If you’re afraid of wild speed, bestial aggression, higher-than-the-sky playing technique, and/or ultrabrutality, my advice would be to stay away from this album and continue listening to your Primal Queers and Hammerfags (disclaimer: the author of this review is completely neutral towards gays and thus he states that previous sentence is not an attack on sexual minorities). Like hyperfast, technical, original, very heavy and brutal music? Listen to «Bleeding Profusely» — your (g)orgasm is imminent!

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