Band: GURTHANG
Country: Poland
Title: Hearts of the Hollow
Label: Immortal Frost Productions
Year: 2021
Style: Doom Black Metal

Review:
Wow, these guys release at least a new album every couple of years since their foundation in 2010 reaching with Hearts of the Hollow the 7th studio full-length, an 8 tracks material clocking almost 45 minutes proposing us a mix of oppressive Doom Metal and Atmospheric Black Metal, or rather vice-versa as the latter is the predominant genre so one could easily label Guthang's latest material as Atmospheric Black Metal and that's it. What I find as the band's highlight inhere is the outstanding bass lines, very heavy, powerful, reminding me of Nu-Metal bands like Korn (wait, don't throw the stone yet!) that relied on the bass to deliver most part of their grooviness, same here but that's the most one could compare Gurthang with Nu-Metal, overall they are extremely far apart, we're getting here raw, angry, ferocious Black Metal that at times reminds me of Samael, mixed with sinister and muddy Doom Metal elements; maybe we could call the output Groovy Doom Black Metal. It's also interesting that the band has one of the 5 members in charge of "ambiance & effects" and nothing more, whatever that means, I think it's the first time I see this. It's not an overly catchy material, but it's something I haven't heard before, sounds interesting and although my previous words would cause a bit of confusion, the general impression after the audition is that the band sounds curdled and their music natural, nice-flowing, the only problem is they don't stand out much. Released on jewel-case CD with 16 pages booklet, but also on vinyl in 3 different colours.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7.5/10

Contact:
gurthang.bandcamp.com
immortalfrostproductions.com

Review to be published in the upcoming issue of Slowly We Rot print magazine!