Technically, the Swiss band Gomorra exists since 2019, not for a long time at all. However it doesn’t means that these musicians are newcomers, no! And the band’s “debut” album Divine Judgement proves it easily.
I used the word “technically” for a reason: until quite recently the band was named Gonoreas and only in 2019 it was changed to Gomorra; a wise decision in my opinion. “Gonoreas” draws attention, of course, but it fits more for some Punk band, so Gomorra, the second city, demolished by forgiving god sounds much better, especially for the band, which mixes Heavy Metal, Thrash and Power.
Few words about the Gomorra’s line-up: Jonas Ambühl (vocals), Stefan Hösli (drums), Nico Ardüser (bass), Dominic Blum (guitar) and Damir Eskić (guitar), Tommy Vetterli’s disciple and Destruction‘s guitarist.
Ok, let’s get back to the album. First of all Divine Judgement stands out with its sound: rich and saturated guitars with explicit drums. Thanks to producer V. O. Pulver and Little Creek Studio (Destruction, Nervosa, Burning Witches), Gomorra sounds really heavy and fresh, if you’ll excuse me.
Like I said before, Divine Judgement‘s 11 tracks are the mix of fast paced Heavy, Thrash and Power Metal. The only exceptions are short intro “Canaan” and mid-paced “Out Of Control” and “Children Of The Land”. While “Out Of Control” is a typical Manowar-like epic Heavy Metal with smooth riff, “Children Of The Land” in its turn reminds a little bit “Symphony Of Destruction” in verses and also has galloping Heavy riff in choruses.
It can’t be said that proverbial genres’ mix calculated accurately and all the components interwoven seamlessly. It sounds more like wrestling for a place in the sun where every genre comes out for some time but replaced with another one. It sounds quite interesting, in general, but not always smoothly. This can be heard especially well in “Brother We’re Damned”: started from fast Judas Priest like guitar riff (resemblance increased vastly when Jonas hits the high notes), it becomes Thrashy and then the elements from all three genres appear. “Cleansing Fire” with “Angels Amongst Us” are good to examples for it also: these are fast songs, full of energy, where Power Metal takes precedence (unlike most songs in this album) but Thrash and Heavy elements are identifiable easily too.
Unfortunately, Gomorra have not escaped some clichés: e.g. the ending “Never Look Back” is fast and catchy song with great chorus. But if we’ll deconstruct it, many will say that there are lots of familiar riffs, bridges and lines. Nevertheless, assembled in one song, it works really well.
But what’s really good in this album is guitarists’ work. Damir Eskić and Dominic Blum interact greatly, complementing each other or contrary playing on contrasts, reminding a legendary Downing/Tipton duo. Their solos in “Flames Of Death”, “Out Of Control” and “The City Must Fall” are really gorgeous. Vocalist Jonas Ambühl also did a great job in this album: hitting the high notes or lowering it as much as possible, Jonas contributes more energy and aggression to these songs.
All in all, Divine Judgement became powerful, aggressive and very melodic album encompassing lots of genres. For me personally there was a lack of some catchiness in the songs but it doesn’t really matters. Anyway, this album and the band are worth attention (and one more time: it was a really good decision to change the name).
Divine Judgement was scheduled to be released on April, 10 but due to COVID-19 issues it will be released on May 22 via Noble Demon Records.
If you really would like to support Antichrist, you can just Share our article.
You can also support Antichrist by sending a couple bucks to cover some webhosting expenses. =>> PayPal
