"colored sands" was the comeback album the band released in 2013. actually creative mastermind luc lemay brought gorguts back in 2008 already but the album took another five years to finally surface. for this release the band collaborated with french label season of mist records for the first time. the wait for "colored sands" was definitely worth it. the record is a demonstration of masterful musical and lyrical skills. gorguts left nothing to chance, every note is the result of a sophisticated masterplan and is distinctively gorguts.
the concept for the album is based on the tibetian culture and history. the album title refers to sand mandalas of the tibetian buddhistic believe. they serve as support for meditation and have a positive affect against the poisons of the mind - hate, greed and delusion. these mandalas are drawn with coloured sand and destroyed after use as a sign for evanescence. the first four songs deal with the culture, topography and geography of the country.
with the orchestral piece "the battle of chamdo" the topic of the last four songs is ringed in. those deal with the chinese invasion in 1950 and its consequences down to the present day. the whole concept is such a strong take on a topic which is to my knlowledge not very common in today's metal and therefore so informative and unique. musically the album is the consequent evolution to "obscura" and a strong follow-up to "from wisdom to hate". luc lemay wanted to create a new musical language with his music and i think he and his band accomplished it completely.
their stuff is so different in thinking and acting from your next best metal band, there is no denying that gorguts are on top of a progressive force in death metal which raised the bar for years to come. considering this i am embarrassingly late to the party. fortunately season of mist re-pressed the album a couple of times with this transparent sand colour out of 250 copies being the latest press from last year. it was still available at high roller records store and so i grabbed myself a copy. season of mist records. 2013/2016.
