Sometimes there's just no room for subtlety. Sometimes you hate everyone and everything because that's the only way the world makes sense. Sometimes you wonder what the musical equivalent of a panther rattling a barbed-wire cage is. Well, maybe only Gaza has thought of that last one.
While some extreme metal bands contort like battlebots on energy drinks, Gaza is more like an oblong shard of sound. The band molds sludge metal, grindcore and the occasional melodic hardcore break, and now on its third album, No Absolutes in Human Suffering, the Salt Lake City band's blast-beaten hooks lure as much as they devastate, like on the cheerily titled "Not With All the Hope in the World."
The six and half-minute "Not With All the Hope in the World" comes in three acts. There's the fast and furious first act, like grindcore pioneers Napalm Death corkscrewed into the paws of a mauling bear. Act two gets down and doomy. In act three, Gaza fully integrates melody into its bleak outlook on humanity. As the last doomy chords ring out on act two, a melodious second guitar joins to complete the phrase for minute or so. Sometimes even the extreme need to reflect.
No Absolutes in Human Suffering is out digitally today. CD and vinyl will be released on Black Market Activities on Aug. 28.
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