There are just some bands that refuse to stay within conventional boxes for too long. For some reason, be it the desire to explore something else or to challenge themselves as musicians, we tend to find some entities shake things up after some time no matter what genre they start out in with the results varying in magnitude from one band to the next. Some changes are gradual, but others, like what we’re seeing with Gosudar in their latest EP, are quick to set in with the results as sudden as they are interestingly perplexing in the best way possible.
Since their 2018 beginning, Gosudar has been on an undeniable rise through the muck of the underground. Armed with a particularly ferocious and pummeling form of death metal that continuously snuffed out the very light of existence any time new material was released, this has not been a band to underestimate in the slightest. Remaining relatively straightforward in their evolution, last year’s split with Tsygun saw Gosudar take a sharp turn into a branch of drone that is high in hostility and forward in its suffocation. One could be forgiven for thinking that would be a one-off for Gosudar, but the three tracks of “Egocidal Maze Descent” prove that not to be the case. We’re given two tracks that see explorative songwriting with a clear base of the death metal Gosudar has become known for with doom and technical death metal showing up to add more than a little spice to the mix, but it’s in the 14-minute finale that we see an unapologetic return of caustic, repressive drone driven by demonic power electronics the likes of which should not work as well as it does.
Separate, both these approaches are already well done for what they bring to the table in no shortage of power. However, it’s together that “Egocidal Maze Descent” quickly transforms into a creation that feels like a grotesque reflection of society with a blunt nihilistic viewpoint that ensures the visual comes across magnificently clear with everything that comes before. It’s a distillation of this dystopian reality that we’re seeing crumble before our eyes with this record offering no sort of reprieve until the final echoes of the EP bring forth the sweet disintegration with blissful obliteration the fate of all, a merciful end for such a tumor upon the world as we know it.
In no small way, Gosudar achieved much in this record that could be deemed as unassuming EP. Whatever is to come next from this trio, it’s obvious now that Gosudar is more than capable of far more than death metal with seemingly anything on the table should this band seize the opportunity. Quickly, this is becoming one of the more interesting bands of their kind in the whole of the writhing underground.
LISTEN to “Egocidal Maze Descent” on Bandcamp here.
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