Goregast - Desechos Humanos

Goregast
Desechos Humanos
F.D.A. Rekotz

Originally conceived as the short lived Distress as far back as 1993, Goregast came onto the scene in 2004, and have since then managed to produce two well-received full-lengths (2005’s ‘Viva El Animal’ and 2007’s ‘La Revancha’). After a lengthy period of down time, the German outfit have returned with their third full-length effort ‘Desechos Humanos’ – which is their first for F.D.A. Rekotz.
With a Spanish title accompanying an album from a Berlin based death metal/grindcore act, I really didn’t know exactly what I was going to get here. But after giving the album a few spins, I can attest that if your musical tastes lean more towards primitive death metal with a crushing production, you could do a whole lot worse than checking out F.D.A. Rekotz.
On ‘Desechos Humanos’, Goregast (Who comprise of vocalist Rico Unglaube, guitarists Steve Kleinert and Rico Krause, bassist Ronny Thiel and new/ex-The Ocean/Mozek Motors drummer Torge Ließmann) have managed to produce a fairly solid death metal release, and one that incorporates flourishes of grindcore in places. And while my initial prediction suggested that the band would be a cross between Brujeria (Given that some of the songs are sung in Spanish) and old Entombed, the band actually have more in common with acts such as Deicide, Nasum and Carcass, for the most part.
The opening title track ‘Desechos Humanos’ (Which translates to something along the lines of ‘Human Waste’) provides an impressive start to the album with a haunting introduction that eventually settles down into an absolutely punishing barrage of primitive death metal that is strangely enough every bit as chaotic sounding as it is measure. Unglaube’s vocal efforts sound ravaged and harrowing, but it’s the way the guitarists lay down their buzzing guitar groove that makes the whole thing work in ways you wouldn’t expect.
‘Puerco De Dinero’ (Which could be interpreted as ‘Pig Money’) is a short blast of intensity, but sadly doesn’t have enough song writing finesse to make it really stand out as anything special, while ‘Honor The Dead’ in comparison is infinitely more thought out and interesting in terms of offering up some diversity and innovation in the riff and tempo department.
And it’s that duality in quality that really makes for an inconsistent and frustrating listen. For every good track, such as the blast beat enhanced ‘Corta La Coleta’ (‘Cut The Queue’), ‘The Boozer’ and the Napalm Death-like closer ‘Unslave Yourself/Outro-bliteration’, the band fall well short of really making an impression with some plodding and predictable efforts like ‘Nice Guy Next Door’ and ‘Capa’.
In some ways, Goregast prove that they have what it takes to really produce some truly intense and quality death metal songs. The unfortunate thing is that sadly, they obviously can’t do it all the time.
‘Desechos Humanos’ is far from a complete disaster, but had the band been a little more selective in terms of the final track listing and offered listeners an album that featured only the best of what they had, it really could have been a more recognised piece of work.

For more information on Goregast, check out - http://www.goregast.jimdo.com/

© Justin Donnelly