Harvest Gulgaltha - Necrosophic (2014)

Harvest Gulgaltha's 2012 cassette demo set an ungodly primitive tone for a project that was heavily focused on unearthing the roots of extremity, in particular the death metal genre, and applying them to the modern day with little more than ugly, harrowing conviction. Necrosophic is a compilation of three other, shorter recordings which remains 100% steadfast to that ideal, and if anything ups the riffing ante just slightly enough that it doesn't feel lazy or stubborn to the extent that it won't try out a new riff style here just to convey a marginal sense of variation. Not that it needs so much help there, since it fairly evenly distributes aesthetics across the death, doom and black metal genres, but the way this LP actually comes across is as a unified, consistent experience rather than a collection of disparate recordings, which so many of these sorts of demo collections ultimately fall prey to.

Necrosophic is an opaque wall of heaving, rotted flesh constructed from the most barebones tremolo riffing patterns and slower, sepulchral doom grooves conjoined with a hideous guttural vocal that retains a lot of torture and sustain as it echoes across the crushing primacy of the songwriting. There are occasionally blasting rhythms or dissonant, airier rhythm guitars representative of a slower style of black metal, and taken as a whole it recalls a lot of 80s genre godfathers ranging from Death and Celtic Frost to Cianide or Nihilist/Entombed, but rarely favoring any of those schools above the other, instead presenting itself as this bludgeoning blank slate to which almost any idea might be applied. The cuts never overstay their welcome, even when consisting of a handful of simplistic riffs they rarely transgress a 4-minute boundary, and there's enough compulsion and variety to those tunes that you feel appropriately absorbed; as with "Of Power in Suspension" which opens with ritualistic, softer drums and dark ambient textures for about half its length but then strikes you in the face with a shovel, knocking you into the nearest open grave and then smothering you with those roiling, dirty guitars until you're nothing more than asphyxiated worm-food.

Riffs are not terribly memorable on an individual basis, their efficacy is in just how uncomfortable and churning and bleak of an atmosphere they create, generally the most formidable when they are played at a crawl like in "Zenith of Formless Chaos" or the longest tune "Liberation of Corporeal Flesh". The guitars and vocals create such an ominous low end that the bass really doesn't come through often for me, but we're not talking Craig Pillard/Incantation style on the latter, more of a ruptured stomach lining growl with plenty of scrutable suffering. Drums seem a little lower mixed, but effectively murky, and the louder splashes of the cymbals are paired up perfectly with the more measured, Cyclopean grooves. I don't know that I can judge this material higher or lower than what I experienced on the demo. Necrosophic is slightly more fulfilling due to the number of tracks, but it presents that same level of darkness and density which complements the necromantic, simple image of the human skull on the cover. Filth purists, who fondly recount an era in which these genres were so often interwoven without a second thought will enjoy its honesty, in particular the death/doom crowd.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

Harvest Gulgaltha - I DEMO (2012)

Probably one of the most oblique and unassuming works I've received lately for coverave, Harvest Gulgaltha's first demo is also one of the most devastating, compacting so much tortured emotion into a blend of death, black and doom metal aesthetics that you have to wonder if whoever wrote and recorded this is even still alive?! I don't have much information on the project, other than that it's a US band who have released this as a limited edition, handnumbered cassette through Aphotic Sonance, a label which also harbors the nightmarish black metal act Sjenovik. But, really, as obfuscated as its membership might be, as hidden its creators from the light of recognition, the message in this music is perfectly clear: you are all very fucking dead, and let this ritual serve as a reminder.

Complexity is not in the cards for Harvest Gulgaltha, but instead the most bare bones, simplistic chord progressions and primal death metal picking patterns, especially in the first track "Infinite Black", which spends much of its time bouncing back and forth between two notes; or the finale "Scepter of the Shadows of Death", which is nearly drone/doom in construction, like a darker, shadowy Neurosis. Just a hint of dissonance. The purpose here isn't to wow a listener with musicianship, but to club him/her over the head slowly and repeatedly. It works, and pretty damn well, thanks to the steadied, ebon ichor of the bass lines, the rich textural depth of the guitar tone and the forceful grooves of the drumming. That's not to say that the demo consists solely of slower material, because there are a few tracks like "Manifestation of Nightmares" which pick up the pace to a blackened death metal surge, but even then the riffs are all pretty familiar and the primary motif is the dense, roiling mass of the vocals, which are basically sirens of oblivion, grating and hoarse death metal gutturals laced with screams...almost like the guy is slowly jerking out his own entrails with a rusted, sharp tool in step with the rhythm of the drums and guitars.

Normally I wouldn't go out for such a primitive aesthetic, but Harvest Gulgaltha had me convinced despite itself, due to the sheer weight of the performance. Even if I've heard these riffs (or similar progressions) a thousand times in the past, the intensity of how they are delivered on this demo cannot be ignored. It's just as hypnotic as sitting in a rehearsal space while your friends, drunken and drugged, hook into a minimalistic groove and just let it hang there, the natural ambiance of the drudging, evil chords enough to create the nightmare stuff of woken hallucinations. I've had a similar reaction to this demo after drinking too much absinthe. It's not rocket science: these primates are blissfully unconcerned with technicality, progression, melody, or anything else beyond the impending escape unto death and emptiness, but there is certainly a place for a recording like this which can so effortlessly drain your soul while bruising and blackening your exterior. Kills you inside out, outside in. No light awaits you in these depths, not even the faintest spark.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]