GONOREAS
“DESTRUCTIVE WAYS”
Album Review By Iron Mathew
10/10
Gonoreas are a heavy metal band from Switzerland formed in 1994 releasing their debut album in 2003. Three more albums followed with their fifth effort, ‘Destructive Ways’ released in 2015.
A superb acoustic guitar intro ‘The Ritual’ builds the tension ahead of the opener ‘Rebellion Against The Opressor’ to fly out of the blocks and rampage a path of destruction through the airwaves. Urgent and fierce, the guitars blaze, the rhythms thunder and the vocals are typical of the European heavy metal style. Catchy and infectious, you will definitely be head banging along to this one. Title song ‘Destructive Ways’ is heavy power metal par excellence. It is addictive with a sing a long chorus. Fans of legendary bands such as Helloween, Running Wild and Rage will love this. ‘Viking’ slows the pace to a mid tempo, very heavy stomp with buzzing guitars and doom laden rhythms, echoing the style of Black Sabbath a little.
Picking up the heaviness is ‘Parallel Universe’ which introduces some elements of brutality, both in terms of guitars and vocals. A raucous chorus break and ‘Parallel Universe’ is worthy of a violent head bang. Switzerland has more of a reputation for hard rock than it does heavy metal but Gonoreas prove that heavy metal does exist. ‘Wizards’ rages on in the style of British icons Judas Priest with heavy guitars, melodious rhythms and clean and clear vocals. ‘Wizards’ also has one of the best guitar solos off the album too. ‘Empire’ is brought to life by an awesome chugging riff and then chugs endlessly on and on with head banging definitely the order of the day and foot stomping an additional extra. Heavy infectious grooves keep ‘Empire’ moving along at pace and to be really honest, this is turning out to be a cracking album.
‘When Nobody Asked’ thunders in and plods along majestically, guitars buzzing and rhythms trotting with another catchy sing a long style chorus. Throughout the album so far there has been no let up in the power and pace of the songs and in the shape of ‘Dark Triad’ it isn’t going to either. Heavy guitars, a mid tempo stomp and a sudden change of pace ‘Dark Triad’ is probably the quickest song off the album and one that if you’re not head banging to then you are probably dead! Bringing the album to a close is ‘The Offering’, a twin to ‘The Ritual’ that began the album…acoustic guitar, tension building, atmospheric and truly sublime. This is an album of superb heavy power metal sandwiched between two of the best acoustic passages you are likely to ever hear.
Overall, very heavy power metal, with chugging, infectious grooves and a powerful, clean vocal delivery resulting in a high energy, high intensity blast of heavy metal.
This review was written for Frenzy Fire [http://www.frenzyfire.co.uk/fa_gonoreasreviews.htm]
TRACKLIST
Ritual
Rebellion Against The Obsessor
Destructive Ways
Viking
Parallel Universe
Wizards
Empire
When Nobody Asked
Dark Triad
The Offering
www.gonoreas.ch
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