99%

I'm really a big thrash metal fan, but this album just blows me away, every time. One review here on metal-archives just doesn't to this album justice.

The production: I'd give it an 8/10, its good but not awesome. A tiny bit muddy overall, and a little noisy as well (namely in the rhythm guitar section) but nothing to shake a stick at. The fact that they have a ton of distortion on their guitars doesn't help with the chords they play, which is where most of the noise seems to be coming from. The balance of guitar/vocals/drums/bass is very good except for the bass, which you can't hear terribly well. Which is a shame too, because the bassist is an incredible talent at that. The EQ on the drums are real good; they aren't overwhelming during the blastbeats, but aren't too quiet anywhere as well. The album lacks little in this department.

As far as the monicker "technical death metal" I think Gorguts is as good as it gets. Many "technical death metal" bands seem boring and repetitive to me, especially as far as the drumming goes. Listening to this album I don't think the drummer uses the same beat in more than one song, which makes it much more interesting to listen to in my opinion. This is one of the things that makes From Wisdom to Hate such a great album; it never, ever gets boring, and each song (and riff for that matter) is memorable. That brings up the riff structure. It is none like any other I have ever heard. The chords they use in the riffs here... I don't know where the hell they get their ideas from. It seems like they have almost no influence in their writing at all, its 100% unique, un-borrowed stuff. Even with no tremelo picking to be found on the whole album, the songs range from fast, to brutal, to fucking heavy, and even to some level where adjectives fail me. The songwriting gets a well-deserved 10. It's really that good.

I'd like to compare Gorguts to another band so that the ones reading this review could get more of an idea of what they sound like... but I cannot. Think: Technical in a Jazzy way like Atheist, but brutal and full like a Suffocation or Immolation album. Thats all I got for comparison.

If you are a metal musician looking for something different and unique, you've found your album. This stuff is enough to keep anyone interested, and for a long-assed time.

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