Gorguts: История канадской дэт-метал группы

Canadian death metal band

Gorguts is a Canadian death metal band formed near Sherbrooke, Quebec, in 1989. The band has gone through various membership changes since its inception; its only constant member has been guitarist vocalist and co founding member Luc Lemay, who remains the driving force of the band. To date, they have released five full length albums and one EP. Their most recent release, Pleiades' Dust, was released on May 13, 2016. Their latest full length album, Colored Sands was released in 2013 and was nominated for a Juno Award. Musically the band is known for its complex, musically dense form of technical death metal, and has become "one of the most advanced, experimental, and challenging groups in the entire genre."

Gorguts was formed in 1989 by Luc Lemay (vocals and guitar), Sylvain Marcoux (guitar), Éric Giguère (bass guitar) and Stephane Provencher (drums); the band name was suggested by one of Provencher's friends. They released their first demo, And Then Comes Lividity, in 1990 which led them to be signed to Roadrunner Records. Their first album, Considered Dead, had guest appearances by James Murphy (a guitar solo on "Inoculated Life") and Chris Barnes (backing vocals on "Bodily Corrupted", "Rottenatomy" and "Hematological Allergy"). Lemay, the only remaining original member, returned in 1998 on Olympic Recordings with a new line up consisting of Steeve Hurdle (guitar), Steve Cloutier (bass guitar) and Patrick Robert (drums). After Obscura, Hurdle left and was replaced by Dan Mongrain of the technical death band Martyr, and Robert was replaced by Steve MacDonald on drums. Steve MacDonald, who had a history of recurrent depression, committed suicide in 2002, which eventually led to the split up of Gorguts in 2005. In an interview, Lemay said that "When I decided to end the band in 2002 or 2003 after Steve MacDonald passed away, I was done with music and I wanted to devote myself to woodworking full time. I was very happy with all the achievements that the band accomplished so it was all good for me no bitterness and no feeling of unfinished business." Lemay moved away from Montreal, "because I was done living there. I wanted to be closer to where I was raised and be closer to nature in a way. After Steve's death I wasn't interested in playing music anymore. I was very content with the musical legacy of the band at that point and I was ready to start a new chapter in my life."

In 2006, Steeve Hurdle asked Lemay to join Hurdle's band Negativa. While the new Gorguts had been performing live and writing new material, Lemay said that the band would not be recording until "late fall" 2010 with a release date some time in 2011; In May 2012, Steeve Hurdle died from post surgical complications. Legal issues surrounding the band's previous contract to Olympic Records delayed the release of the album. Olympic were taken over by Century Media, and Lemay wanted to renegotiate the band's contract. "They agreed to, but in the end, we didn't see eye to eye on things and we mutually agreed it was better to go our separate ways. Dissolving the contract was a very time consuming and complicated legal affair." The classical piece "The Battle of Chamdo" was written by Lemay on piano and recorded with a string quintet. Colored Sands was nominated for a Juno Award.

John Longstreth, whose schedule with Origin was incompatible with Gorguts, departed the band in 2014. His replacement was Patrice Hamelin, who had been performing live with Gorguts since 2011. Lemay announced that Gorguts was working on a new album that would consist of one long song. Pleiades' Dust, the resulting EP, was released on May 13, 2016. It is a concept album about the House of Wisdom in Baghdad during Europe's Dark Ages, and is the band's first recording with Hamelin. On July 25, 2016, the band announced that they would be touring North America in October 2016 with Intronaut and Brain Tentacles in support of Pleiades' Dust. Following this tour, Gorguts entered another period of relative inactivity.

On June 29, 2020, Luc Lemay announced that Gorguts was returning from yet another hiatus and was beginning work on a new album. The band announced a new line up and live work for 2024.

Gorguts' style of metal has evolved considerably since the formation of the band, evolving from a relatively straightforward death metal sound into an increasingly complex style of avant garde technical death metal. More recently, the band's music is characterised by technically demanding, structurally complex songwriting, with strong use of dissonant and atonal guitarwork. Luc Lemay has noted the influence of Opeth, Deathspell Omega, and Porcupine Tree on his more recent songwriting. The band's early music, particularly their debut album Considered Dead in 1991, is characterised by a relatively straightforward death metal sound, with conventional instrumentation and song structures. Lemay credits Swedish death metal band Entombed as a major influence on this album. However, on their second album The Erosion of Sanity in 1993, the band began to experiment more, incorporating pianos and acoustic guitars into their sound. The band took a break after this album but reformed with a new lineup and released Obscura in 1998. Obscura represented a significant shift in the band's style of music, often attributed to then guitarist Steeve Hurdle. The album made increasing use of complex song structures, unorthodox sounds, dissonant guitarwork, unconventional time signatures, and esoteric lyrical themes. "Even by today's standards Obscura is considered to be one of the most complex and technical records in the genre, due to its unprecedented dissonance and experimentation brought by the band's late guitarist Steeve Hurdle." Gorguts' influence on metal has been extensive. They are routinely credited as being key pioneers in the use of dissonance and atonality in metal. Obscura is named after the Gorguts album of the same name.