Gyrdleah – Spellbinder Review

My dear child of the night who listens to “Spellbinder” will get the difference I always tell about being heavy as frigging hell and being fast. This is a discussion from the 1980s when bands started to octane their music and giving it a faster than the speed of light velocity. Most of the fans of that time thought the speed was a direct synonim of heavyness. It’s not really that. Speed sure gives more heavyness to the sound but it’s not all. The concept of being heavy is far more than speed and distortion. There has to be some chaos in it. The music must have some kind of nervous indeterminacy. It’s not only Metal music or Punk or even Rock that can be heavy. Some Jazz can also be very heavy. This is exactly what my dear child of the night can expect here from Gyrdleah with “Spellbinder,” a very heavy album. Musical chaos is everything to be found here.

Many will say “Spellbinder” is a Doom Metal album and, if I understood the term correctly, their odds to be right are high, very high. Metal subgenres boundaries are as thin as air these days. Bands flirt with lots of traits to build up their layers of sound and that’s natural as far as I’m concerned. Metal music isn’t black and white anymore. There are many shades of gray interwoven in it. But one thing is for sure, vocals here make all the difference. Vocals are the thing that sustain the heavyness of the album adding some more aggression to them as instrumentals aren’t as outgoing as they are. Album opener “Stab the Lamb” gave me a great impression and it was the track that lighted up all the discussion about heavyness and speed. The slow and full of distortion initial guitar strumming makes a lot of fuzz. It was the step-on-it spirit in it though that also made think about Gyrdleah being a Doom Metal band. It’s from there the song gets very dense mood acquiring more and more the despair so characteristic of Black Metal. “Stab the Lamb” is the only track in the album that showcases some more speed. Following track “GYFU” gives the details of what is to come as a slow water dripping that relentlessly falls in someone’s head. Hm, no water, some acid instead. That’s the idea.

Gyrdleah “Spellbinder” will be released on April 21st via Black Lion Records.

Track Listing:

  1. Stab the Lamb
  2. GYFU
  3. Gathered for Murder
  4. Approaching Gyrdleah
  5. Speak of the Devil
  6. Spellbinder
  7. Witch
  8. Six Hundred Threescore and Six
  9. Outro

Watch “Speak of the Devil” official lyric video here:

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