GONOBA – Endless Cycles
- by Matt Coe
- Posted on 14-05-2013
This second album from technical thrash/death act Gonoba is a fluid affair of juggling jaw dropping riffs and time signature changes and managing to keep cohesive arrangements/ structures for consumers to handle. Discordant opening riffs such as the ones in "Between the Lies" signal a love for Forbidden, Into Eternity, and Revocation in terms of the brilliant, lightning quick lick trade-offs, comfortable tempo acceleration and rough and tumble vocals. The instrumental title track contains some of the catchier, easy on the ear parts you’ll hear from this quintet, although drummer Rok Capuder delivers some tight fill work and mighty tempo syncopation with the razor tight axe slinging.
Overall, "Endless Cycles" provides a modest amount of entertainment, but I do think the five-piece need to refine a lot of the stop/ start nature of tracks like "Existence Denied" and the 7:57 "Rational Conclusion" if they hope to gain more of a following, because conventional metal heads will feel motion sickness taking these 10 songs in on a regular basis.
An act with potential if they channel their energy and creativity in the right direction, Gonoba still has a little work ahead of themselves to reach the heights of the elite. Because screaming "Camel Metal" during that song’s chorus showcases a lack of proper lyrical forethought, unless their intent is to be a touch comical with some of their English lyrics. Great musicianship could win over many fence sitters, so this is another record that probably needs some social media stream sampling before you dive fully into the main course.
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