Gaza, He Is Never Coming Back
Take the crushing, noisy punishment of Premonitions of War, the bruising mosh and blasts of Burnt By The Sun, the angst and venom of Unsane and then throw in heaping dose of Jesus-hatin’ and you’ve got yourself Salt Lake City’s own Gaza. But how could a band hailing from the land of ultra religious beliefs not come to deliver one of the most abrasive, anti-religion and raw albums of the year.
He Is Never Coming Back corrodes away at the foundations of all that Salt Lake City (and the religious world as a whole) is built upon with caustic, textured and noisy as fuck guitars that rise from the depths of hell with bruising ferocity only to devolve in upon themselves with a cacophony of reverb and distortion. Vocally, the band levels out heavy helpings of guttural screams, mid-range shrieks and gurgling belches in every effort to have you fully aware of their message — a truly fitting companion to the steamrolling rhythms that fill this album.
How it Is. How Its Going To Be.
I’ve thrown this one on my iPod and replayed it over and over when hitting the gym. The shear ferocity of the growls and massive size of the riffs in the first half of the song is enough to have Arnold pumping iron like there’s no tomorrow. The overall tone of the song is dark and menacing. The vocals finally come in around the 2:30 mark along with distorted, wavering guitars.
The Kicking Legs
“The Kicking Legs” certainly is spastic enough to represent the death twitch of the recently steamrolled by Gaza. This song is an all-at-once attack on the senses with blasting drums, caustic guitars and vocal destruction. At times unorganized and churning the track ebbs and flows wonderfully from structure to chaos and back again. The vocals (layered and multiple screamers) so far on the album are delivered with devastating honesty and ferocity.
Bishop
A nasty scream gets this next one off to a raucous start with manic drums and a decent blast of grinding guitars. “Bishop” has a disjointed feel driven by swirling and churning guitars and spastic drums, yet collectively it all comes together nicely in a steaming pile of grinding mayhem.
The Biologist
This sub 50 second track is comprised of light guitar strumming and serves as a brief interlude between blasts of noisy, grinding destruction.
Windowless House
“Windowless House” picks up where “Bishop” left off in the riff department. Starting off with beefy rhythms and guitars the song transitions into a churning mass of textures, growls, thundering drums and guitar squeals — yet behind the whole thing is a melancholy and melodic element itching to come forward.
He Is Never Coming Back
Distorted guitars introduce the title track with sing-along vocals sure to leave you rupturing tendons in your neck and throat as you scream with all that you’ve got. Holy hell this song is bad ass and it’s the slower tempo that makes it that much more powerful. It’s just too bad it’s only two minutes long. Then again, that’s probably a good thing.
Canine Disposal Unit
Gaza erupt into churning and rumbling blasts as this next song gets going quickly. The vocals are layered on top of one another with great effectiveness, adding a huge amount of depth to the mix. This is a rough, violent ride through some severely battered amps. The song ends quietly and peacefully with light guitars and a little atmosphere that fades into the next track.
The Anthropologist
This 40 second long instrumental is soft and touching — quite a departure from the band’s normally caustic malevolence.
The Meat Of A Leg Joint
“The Meat Of A Leg Joint” starts off with a nice Unsane feel to the guitars as the vocals come in forcefully. The guitars take on a life of their own quickly though, swirling in chaos and distortion and the rolling thunder of the drums rumbles in the background. The one minute point marks a quick shift in the tone and thickness of the guitars as they hit mosh levels deeper than the Stygian Abyss. The last minute of the song is beyond ferocious.
The Astronomer
This a dark and brooding song that starts off with burly yet slowly moving riffs and drum work, as well as distant screams. There’s a definite doom influence within the depths of “The Astronomer” that only adds another slick element to the band’s sound.
Tombless
A huge growl and awesome, churning guitars gets “Tombless” off to a sick start. The thickness to this song is nearly suffocating without being overbearing. This is another one of those scream alongs that will leave you muted for a few days. This song descends into a grinding, filthy mess before arising once again to punish the righteous with a severe beating about the head and shoulders. Man, that was a kick ass song.
The Historian
“This Historian” is another short track, but unlike the two previous interludes, there’s nothing soft of melodic about it. Revisiting the beastly riffs of the opening track, Gaza spend a a good 40 seconds on burying you in doomy riffs before fading out for the final song.
Carnivore
“Carnivore” is an exciting song with all kinds of shit getting thrown in to the churning mass of noise. Big burly guitars jump in with blasting drums and layered screams/growls to build a dense wall distortion. Hell, there’s even a few melodic touches tossed in for good measure. In the end, though, this song is all about wrapping up the raw, blood crusted bed sheets that encases all that is religious and hurling the battered package into the nearest back alley dumpster.
Hidden Track
There is a final 15 minutes to the album after the final proper song that fades in slowly to distant guitar strumming and light drums for most of the track. Quickly spoken utterances (a sound clip perhaps) come in at 7:45 and fade out quickly after. It’s not until 8:30 that we’re greeted with some decent riffing and steady drums. The music that rounds out the hidden track is well written with a nice melodic touch to the overall sound.
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Additional Notes:
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