Band:	Gory Blister
Album:	The Fifth Fury
Style:	Technical death metal
Release date:	May 2014

01. Psycho Crave
02. Thresholds
03. Toxamine
04. Devouring Me
05. The Fifth Fury
06. Prometheus Scars
07. (Meet Me) In The Mass Grave
08. The Grey Machinery
09. Heretic Infected Orchestra

My brain seems to refuse to write a review without using a ridiculous reference. Apologies in advance, because this will be no exception: it sincerely helped me put order in the conflicting impressions I have of Gory Blister's Fifth Fury.

I have no idea how to tackle their hybrid case of melodic/tech death metal. Think of it as the metal equivalent of ManBearPig. Weirdly combined together, seems to be working somehow, yet without ever being really sexy.





The Fifth Fury develops a late '90s Swedish feels with its combination of growled/harsh vocals and sharp guitar tone. Thank God, the moderately clear production balances that old school feeling without polishing it to the point it loses its grain. The last thing we needed was to lose what makes this album a nice bridge between the death metal "of old" and the modern and rather distinguishable sound they adopted. To give you a clearer idea of what is playing on my stereo right now, I could add with the least amount of doubt that these guys didn't try to hide the melodic-era Carcass influence, and it's really one of the best features I can make out in the fog that is my judgement of this album.

Nevertheless, do you see those two pink dots in the mist? Yes, those are the soft human male nipples on ManBearPig. If that isn't the beast's g-spot weakness, then I don't know what I'm talking about. What I'm trying to get at is, well, that no matter how brutal The Fifth Fury tries to be, it still remains as weak as those cute rosy buds. I don't know if it's time or taste, but I really have difficulty finding the whole album menacing or violent. In my opinion and in this specific case, the complex performance works better as a contrast, a highlight for the melody, rather than its own vector of violence. It is all the more regrettable that the vocals often feel a bit "dry" and forced, thus further etiolating the power of the musicianship.

With the weird even-cheesier-than-Dimmu Borgir symphonic and very out-of-place last track, Gory Blister closes a half-an-hour-long fifth effort that's worth checking out for its high-riff-density and interesting take on the genre. I personally don't adhere much to the formula even if I know these Italians' fifth album could appeal to many of you, ManBearPig lovers.