Harvest Gulgatha – Ancient Woods

Harvest Gulgatha is a US-based Black/Death Metal trio who, despite being a bit late to the proverbial party (having seen their inception in 2012) nevertheless have so far managed to release two Full-length releases, one Compilation and a Demo. And in todays scribble I will be focusing on the newest of these, a Full-length by the name of Ancient Woods – A seven tracks long ‘live album’, spanning a grand total of thirty-five minutes (live in the sense that every single aspect of it screams for being played live. Loudly. Until the venue creaks).

I seem to have mentioned numerous times in the past two things: One, I am not good with mixing genres, as my mind is apparently too rigid to appreciate the end result more than half the time. I prefer my Black Metal cleanly divided from my Death Metal for instance, in order to draw a half-forced parallel to the record at hand. 

Two, if, on the off chance, that I end up liking any fusion of genres (such as the two mentioned above) it is mostly because they are either one of the genres emboldened by the other (Blackened Death Metal for instance) or because the band manages to create a fusion between the two that highlight the individual aspects that make each genre great and combine them equally into something new. The latter of these I experience even more rarely that even the former, but I am pleased to say that Harvest Gulgatha has succeeded to pull it off, as least as far as I am concerned. 

Ancient Woods, its relative short playtime notwithstanding, has the fast pace and relentlessness that is often found in modern Death Metal as well as the sheer raw aggression that I have come to know and love from Black Metal, both old and new. And, unsurprisingly coming from a band with over a decade under their belt, they are also very consistent in their level of performance. Not a single one of the tracks would be one I feel like could be singled out as being neither the best nor the worst of the record (even if “The Will Of Flame” does cheat somewhat by being not only divided into three separate tracks but evenly spaced out across the whole album as well) – In short, a rare endorsement from me as far as a half-breed album is concerned. 

Recommended for fans of God Dethroned, Incantation and Teitanblood. 

https://www.facebook.com/harvestgulgaltha