gorguts were a little surprise to me last year. a band that is around since the late eighties and their considered masterpiece "obscura" was written in the mid nineties, were just brought into my focus last year. i bought their re-issues of said "obscura" album and the follow-up "from wisdom to hate" on century media and then my interest drifted onto other things. lately i listened to my gorguts records again and thought it was time to get the latest stuff from the return after their second break-up consequent upon the suicide of drummer steve macdonald in 2002.
in 2008 the band or better luc lemay, guitarist, voclist and mastermind behind gorguts' compositions, started working on a few demo tracks. due to some legal issues with century media which took over olympic records, the label which gorguts released their last two records with, and long recording process, the fifth full length "colored sands" saw the light of day in 2013 and "pleiades' dust" in 2016 eventually. the wait was worth it. the band is still complex and challenging but that is just the way you want your gorguts album. what is more stunning to me is the atmosphere they create.
the e.p. that contains of one coherent song. the lyrical concept is based on the house of wisdom in baghdad and it seperates the piece into seven sections. the house of wisdom was founded in 825 and was some sort academy where arabic scholars translated and provided scientific scripts from the ancient world. next to the translation department the house of wisdom also contained a hospital, a libary and an observatory. in 1258 the house was destroyed by the mongolians who conquered baghdad. all these elements can be found in the fantastic artwork by zbigniew m. bielak from poland. 500 copies on orange vinyl. season of mist records. 2016.
