Gruesome - Silent Echoes (Swamp Green Indie Exclusive Vinyl)

Gruesome return with Silent Echoes, a ferocious Death Metal onslaught, fueled by progressive, razor sharp musicianship. Celebrating over a decade as the finest purveyors of old-school Death Metal inspired by the legendary Chuck Schuldiner and the many iterations of Death, the new album sees Gruesome transition away from the no-frills riff-fests heard on their Savage Lands and Twisted Prayers LPs, and shift towards a more nuanced form of terror. Silent Echoes is the quartet'strue put up or shut-up moment for one simple reason: It was written and recorded in the spirit of DEATH's 1991 progressive death metal masterpiece, Human. Silent Echoes is Gruesome's transmutation into the complex, jazz-influenced fields ploughed on Human. As Harvey states, "there's less winking at the audience on this one," which is true: The overtly intentional homages found on the band's previous two albums have been replaced with fluid, agile drum work from Rios, as well as spiraling, multi-faceted guitar riffing from Harvey and Gonzalez, the latter responsible for the album's melodic leads. At a time when the thirst for all things Chuck Schuldiner remains unquenchable, leave it to four accomplished, true, well-intentioned death metal veterans to help continue the man's legacy.