Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Gora
Label: Lip Art Events
Released: 2016
Length: 39:19
Rating: 4/5
Kevin Koradin (Tide, Revolver), Sergej Pobegajlo (Junaki nočne kronike, Ognjerezi, C4, Billysi, Bombe, Krom) and David Debevec (Leeloojamais, Mary Rose) are three seasoned musicians. The first two in particular come with a ton of studio and stage mileage. Over years of musical epics and creating, the trio has dipped into an enviable bundle of genre spheres, as the bands listed above hint.
But what matters most? Chemistry. How the guys got along at their very first jam isn’t even important. What counts is that their chemical reaction opened up the view onto an adventure, a one-of-a-kind musical proving ground they named Gora. Gora is a totally new story, with a musical character all its own. A new adventure. Of dark outlooks. Of white-hot, live and modern production with distinctly booming, lower, fat tunings. The more drone and rumble there is, the better the band knows how to exploit those effects and build them into an avalanche-like, massive wall of sound made of foamingly splashing guitar phrases.
The key to success is really the merging of fashionable sonic trends with a back-to-basics approach to realizing the musical ideas themselves. The live, metal-sharpened, vampiric guitar sound is anchored at one end of the sonic picture by a deeply pulsing bass, and at the other by stripped-down drumming marches full of inventive double-kick work and wittily slipped-in rolling fills, which boost the payoff of the arrangements and slyly pack them out. The result is an energetic, high-voltage, springy album that instantly sucks the listener in. The cherry on top is Koradin’s vocal, nestled into this sonic picture, spitting out an enviable and much-needed dose of venom in his relived, furious singing across the album. Even though the band relentlessly follows the crushing force of the chosen lead phrase, every single track is craftily shaken up with melodic modulations, especially in the mid-eight passages, which gratefully adds extra variety to the moods across the album and keeps the action at a high dynamic level. Atmospheric leaps into organic acoustic territory are also on the menu.
Even though the production is trendy, the trio comes from the elementary building blocks of metal, and of rock’n’roll too, the guitar phrases are often thrash-ified, and Koradin is noticeably more in the spotlight as a guitarist than in his work with Tide. He plays all the solos, all the guitar ornaments over the phrases and the transitional parts between the lead motifs. In that vein we can say just one thing. That Kevin Koradin is not only an excellent guitarist, but has grown over the years into a refined musical arranger and composer. Sergej Pobegajlo has definitely cashed in on his songwriting talents skillfully too. The trio obviously clicks extremely well creatively and complements each other in all the right ways. Every track is marked by a polished format of heads and tails with peaks in the chorus melodies. Koradin once again deftly cashes in on his finely honed sense of musicality, which in places gratefully discharges the otherwise exceptional production tension of the release. The songs are mostly sung in Slovenian, and that very element gives the release an extra moment of »being different« and recognizability. It’s great to discover some Koradin vocal characteristics we haven’t heard yet. Slovenian works brilliantly in these songs.
The album »Gora« is an excellent studio debut, one that, given the reputations of the trio’s members, was also quietly anticipated. Every move on it is measured, thought-out and refined, and this album doesn’t carry musical ballast for even a single second. Even when it comes to the track Draco, which runs over seven minutes and is the only one sung in English, and which the band skillfully spices up with compatible and inventive passages, there’s no feeling that the band strayed into possible compositional dryness or a mashup of less compatible lead motifs. We can say the mission was more than accomplished. An excellent album powered by a true blend of unbridled, metallized, high-voltage eruptions of catchy guitar phrases, tightly defined musical forms and white-hot, passionately live performance sound. All in all. An exceptionally special musical release.
Gora – Megalodon (official video):
Lineup
Kevin Koradin – vocals, guitar
Sergej Pobegajlo – bass guitar
David Debevec – drums
Production
Sergej Pobegajlo
Tracklist
1. Odpri oči
2. Glej naprej
3. Megalodon
4. Novi fašizem
5. Glasovi
6. Antarktika
7. Kdo je bog
8. Draco
9. Vojna X
10. Daleč od sonca
