Review: Gutvoid – Durance of Lightless Horizons

Style: Progressive Death Metal (Harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Bathory, Metallica, Ghost
Review by: Will
Country: Canada
Release date: 23 September, 2022

Happy October, Spooky Friends! The leaves are turning, nights are darkening and Samhain is fast approaching. And as if to coincide with the gathering dark, Gutvoid has released their debut album Durance of Lightless Horizons; an atmospheric Hammer-Horror movie of an album that revels in its own gruesomeness featuring filthy vocals, whirling, hypnotic guitar parts, bone-rattling drums and song titles that sound like D&D modules (an image happily reinforced by the pretty epic looking artwork).

With the musicians in question possessing over 20 bands worth of experience under their collective belts, it’s no surprise that there’s excellent composing and musical chops on show here. Immediately apparent is Gutvoid‘s penchant for a dramatic entrance: The introduction to all the songs are almost uniformly excellent. From the swirling, wavering build up of “Coils of Gas-Hewn Filament”, through the direct pounce of “Delivered to the Alter Lich” to the ventablack doom-laden ominousness that is “Wandering Dungeon” (try to read that track title and not imagine the music video to “Holy Diver”).

Gutvoid also beautifully manipulate the tempo and drive of their songs. Clearly drawing influences from a lot of different wells, sometimes doom, sometimes thrash and oftentimes blackened death metal. Putting these sounds together is a mean feat that, more often than not, Gutvoid manage to pull it off. “In Caverns it Lurks” is a great example: A creature-feature movie where the tone shifts between a doom-y, stalking creep and a thrash-y, savage charge reminiscent of early Metallica. Their hefty experience works well in terms of the cohesiveness of their sound; this is a band where each musician knows when to ease off and let one another side. The mix is well balanced as a result (despite somewhat burying the bass), the vocals being low and close to the instruments which adds to the thick, claustrophobic sound that feels so very Gutvoid. 

It’s a rare thing to listen to a band’s debut album and feel like they already very much have something of their own sound. Often band’s first albums sound like a smorgasbord of their various influences and, though many of their influences are on show here, the band has managed to synthesise them into a way that sounds more of themselves than of their influences. In the front row of their sound is Brendan Dean’s guttural vocals which genuinely ooze evil in their slow delivery. Another recurring theme is the repetitive, hypnotic guitar riffs that often take the place of a guitar solo or bridge, drawing the listener deeper in to the tar of Gutvoid’s sound. “Delivered to The Alter Lich” displays the best example of thiswhere the swirling guitar tones are clear circle-pit generating material. Perhaps in a live-music setting this is the case however, when just listening to the album, these sections can sometimes be overly lengthy, overly repetitive and outstay their welcome.

There are, sadly, a couple more flies in the Gutvoid ointment: The biggest is that, despite knowing how to make a killer entrance, they have a lot more difficulty making an exit. Their songs end with more of a whimper than a bang, going for a fade out over an repetitive outro more often than not. It often seems the case that the song is running into an interesting exit riff only to veer back for another verse that, honestly, feels surplus to requirements (as in “The One Who Dwells Beyond Time”). The best song endings on the album are on “Delivered to the Alter Lich” and “Skeletal Glyph”. This may feel like a monumentally nit-picky critique, but sticking the landing to a song is important and it just doesn’t quite feel right for their songs to fizzle into nothingness, especially given the strength of the song’s introduction.

But there are moments in this album when all the elements pull in the exact right direction. “Delivered to the Alter Lich” (which has been mentioned in almost every paragraph of this review) is one example of exactly the horror movie of a track Gutvoid is capable of making: A savage, headbangable, mosh pit scouring monster of a song that could and should bring out the beast in us all. The other end of the Gutvoid duality is “Wandering Dungeon” which pulls their atmospheric, blackgaze influence to centrestage.

Durance of Lightless Horizons is the schlocky horror movie of an album to keep you company over Halloween: There aren’t too many surprises in store, but it’s somehow just what’s needed to set the scene as Samhain approaches in the darkening streets.

Recommended tracks: Delivered to the Alter Lich, Wandering Dungeon
You may also like: Epitaphe, Godless, Wither, Negură Bunget
Final verdict: 7/10

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Label: Blood Harvest – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Gutvoid is:
– Daniel Bonofiglio (guitars, bass)
– Brendan Dean (guitars, vocals)
– Justin Boehm (bass)
– D.W. Lee (drums)