Gorod get a lot of good press, and although I haven't actually heard their much-lauded previous album Leading Vision in full - and even then, not in years - I must say that their newest effort Process of a New Decline is...well, it's really fucking good, I can't pretend it isn't.
Talk about a complete kick in the balls with this one. All the problems with modern Technical Death Metal are pretty much eschewed and forgotten about on here, and replaced with a hungry, bloodthirsty and insanely complex template that resembles something like a truck slamming into you at 100 mph. There is not a wasted note on this album, and I am not exaggerating at all - every second of Process of a New Decline is spent thoroughly on mind-blowingly technical riff/lead layering executed with a furious, blistering intensity that will singe your eyebrows off within the first couple of songs. And they never let up, through eleven songs and fifty minutes of winding, twisted insanity, of completely relentless mathematical fury. Most Death Metal albums get tiring around that point, but not Gorod; these guys know what they're doing. They have more focus, anger and intelligence in one guitar string than some bands have in their entire arsenal.
There's just...really too many good moments on here to list them all in one review. "Disavow Your God," for example, check out the way the guitars harmonize and play off each other in the last half of the song. Or how about "Programmers of Decline," which barrels through the gates firing on all cylinders with a careening tempo that will have you pumped up like you just drank a gallon of Gatorade? They can even do a slower burn pretty well, as evident on "Rebirth of Senses." The band is always doing something, always enthralling the listener and always providing a lively, ear-pleasing jolt to the senses. Even on the more melodic, calculated "Watershed," they still manage to dazzle. Fuck, they're good.
Process of a New Decline plays as a soundtrack to the merciless hacking and total destruction of a mainframe computer database, a mechanical and impartial Ragnarok upon the whims of humanity's technological follies. Nobody ever thought Technical Death could sound this good. One of the best words I could use to describe this would be purpose - never do Gorod stop sounding like they have a mission to accomplish. It's very gratifying. Gorod have created a serious ass-kicking beast here, and if this is what they can do now, I shudder at how powerful they might grow in a few more years...
