Tag Archives: Mories

Gnaw Their Tongues – Abyss Of Longing Throats

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It can’t be easy being a genuine innovator. Critics like to make a big deal about bands who “forge their own sound”, but once you’ve done that, what are you supposed to do with it? The challenge of maintaining that unique voice without just repeating yourself is one that many bands have stumbled over – and if you manage that, you have to deal with staying ahead of the bands you inspired. Gnaw Their Tongues’ solo artist Mories was among the first musicians to blend Extreme Metal with electronic Noise/Dark Ambient on anything more than a superficial level, and despite the increasing popularity of this combination GTT remain at the very cutting edge of the hybrid genre.

Mories’ response to this problem is to stake claim to a broad territory, and subtly refine the focus of each album, drawing different aspects of his sound into greater clarity. The key elements of Gnaw Their Tongues’ sonic domain – raw Black Metal, “industrial” Drone Doom, alienating Ambient and Harsh Noise with disturbing vocal samples and found-sounds – are present on every album, but combined in different ratios to keep each release fresh and distinctive. On Abyss Of Longing Throats (Crucial Blast), the Metal elements of their sound have been turned all the way to 11, creating what is probably one of their most accessible releases to date.

Of course, this is still Gnaw Their Tongues here – “accessible” needs to be taken in context. The Metal here – whether it’s the howling, repetitive BM of the title track or the almost Death Metal rhythmical pounding of “Through Flesh” and “Up Into The Heavens Down Into The Circles Of Hell” – is always of the most abstract and alienating kind, and constantly drenched in layers of suffocating Noise and distortion. The effect is not a thousand miles away from Aevangelist, a band who were clearly inspired by Gnaw Their Tongues and have perhaps given a little of their own inspiration back.

Abyss Of Longing Throats is both a valid starting point for new listeners and a satisfying new release for existing fans of one of the most genuinely unique and innovative Extreme Metal bands in the world, and guaranteed a space in the End Of Year list of anyone who enjoys their music harsh, disturbing and abstract.

 

8.0/10

 

RICHIE HR


Gnaw Their Tongues – Collected Atrocities (2005-2008)

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These days, blending Black Metal with Noise/Ambient electronics is so common it’s become a cliché but that wasn’t always the case. During the late 90’s and early 2000’s using Noise for intros or segues was standard, but actually letting it into your SONGS was still largely frowned upon. Along with his peers in Axis Of Perdition, Mories (the man solely responsible for Gnaw Their Tongues) was among the first to really explore the potential of these two often contradictory styles, and still among the very best.

Collected Atrocities (Crucial Blast) is a compilation of EPs and splits recorded between 2005 and 2008, and though it represents the tiniest portion of their truly intimidating back catalogue, it’s a relatively accessible place for new listeners to start… not that “accessible” is a word normally associated with Gnaw Their Tongues. With over two hours of music spread across two CDs, the tracks here cover the full range of sounds which GNT inhabit – from full-on Black Metal with Noise as a background to sparse electronic soundscapes with nothing as familiar as a riff in sight – but mostly occupy the middle ground where Mories is at his strongest. Guitars processed to such a gruelling extent that they become Noise themselves form the backbone of abstract, punishing arrangements, fleshed out with unsettling sounds and broken rhythms, while Mories’ pained shriek fights for space with the disturbing spoken-word passages so popular in Harsh Noise.

Gnaw Their Tongues’ music works best when it occupies that space that I wish I had a better term for than “Background Foreground” – not “songs” in any recognisable sense, the tracks here seem to fall naturally to the back of the listener’s consciousness, but once there they begin mercilessly transforming everything else, changing even the most mundane experience into one pregnant with indescribable horror and discomfort. Do NOT go to a high-street fast-food shop on a Saturday night while listening to Gnaw Their Tongues – you will be plunged into an eldritch world of decay and horror from which your sanity will never escape.

The perfect proof that even Gnaw Their Tongues’ odds-and-sods are more genuinely unsettling than anything that 95% of Black Metal or Noise bands can put out on their best days, Collected Atrocities is not only essential listening for people already convinced by this combination of styles, but also an ideal first listen for the uninitiated, and – given its nature as a compilation – a surprisingly coherent one.

 

8.5/10

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RICHIE HR