A Step in the Dark

“A Step In The Dark” – now that’s familiar, but behind the commonplace album title proudly stand the guys from the newly born formation Spanish formation Gothmog. And in order to cut away all misunderstandings – no, there’s not a single gothic tune here, moreover we speak about a killer debut album which covers all necessary requirements in order to turn into a masterpiece in the extreme music genre, by which it gains a well-earned place in the ranks of its co-brothers from the productions of the titular Scandinavian counties. Spain in particular is a country which despite its musical diversity has never won me over completely, which also goes with few but very valuable exceptions. On the other hand, Gothmog got into my good books suspiciously fast and for this I have to blame their already mentioned debut record, because “A Step In The Dark” is really far away from everything I’m used to when it comes to that geographical region.

The ideas of the founder of the band – Ruben Picazo, come to be more than just successful; it would be wrong to say that the album kicks off and enslaves every living and undead soul even by its very beginning, because that simply isn’t true. The same founding member, who lurks here under the code name Pikaath and takes the vocal role, has calibrated everything thus one can freely listen to this album backwards and still get lost beyond any salvation in the genius of the songs. And believe me, they are without exception all sweeping away, uncompromisingly powerful cutters with strikingly harmonic balance between fast riffs, symphonic-power melodic background, here and there some wannabe Equilibrium folk element and abundant quantity of strangling ominous mood, inspired from titans in the likes of Dimmu Borgir & co. What strikes my ears mostly still remains the fact that for no more than 40 minutes Gothmog demonstrate more qualitative, diverse and complex playing than everything which can come from so many colleagues of theirs for twice as much as this particular time, by which the Spanish boys become way and above them all and continue shooting their songs one after another like summoned from Hell demons. Everyone can find for himself concrete elements, no matter the substance which he seeks in this type of music – the guys generously give away solo or group guitar monstrosities (in which extraterrestrial nature I’m deeply convinced), frantic rifle rhythm section and whatever else comes to your mind. The same goes also for the lyrical subjects of the compositions, offering a solid choice between real historical events (“Ghost Of Ancient Days”, “Art Of War”), tragic tales of Viking-Celtic pilgrimages and battles (“Wandering Viking”, ”Death Of A Warrior”), or simply the psycho digressions of Pikaath to the Slavic folklore and his perverted moroi-vampiric hallucinations (“The Awakening Of Lord Strigoi”). The very same “storyteller” represents a great part of the absorbing sound of the whole record as each single hysterical black metal shout, coming from the depths of his throat, immediately becomes a vital part of the tracks, as though Ruben himself is breaking off whole pieces of his lungs and mixes them into an opiate music infusion with its own flesh and blood. And the bands, capable of this, are getting less and less these days.

Before I end this I’ll just mention that Gothmog isn’t a debut appearance for the brain behind the band by far – Pikaath also stands behind the prog-power metal groups Dilirium and Cain’s Dynasty, which achievements are also nice, but the more various conception of “A Step In The Dark” undoubtedly deserves even more serious attention. With his new band he offers something a million light years distant from just a timidly groping his way around and invades the space directly with all his strength, malice and fury, so I wish him a longer campaign at least this time.