Progressive death metal collective, Gutvoid, write music with a clear match between the audio and the visual. They compose art that can be described as “cosmic horror.” Hailing from Toronto, they achieved a modicum of hype after 2022’s Durance of Lightless Horizons debut, and now they’re part of the Profound Lore roster. Are you ready to disappear into a black hole for album number two?
Unlike many death metal bands, Gutvoid are experts at creating mood. The ominous guitar phrasings of opening piece, ‘Ruinous Gateways’, build an atmosphere that could score the soundtrack for a Stanley Kubrick movie. This apprehensive tone continues on ‘Spell Reliquary’, where the two axes switch between danger warnings and melodic string bends. Vocalist, Brendan Dean, growls through his verse parts with the salivated aggression of a pitbull terrier. The most interesting aspect here is the pervading sense of fear articulated in the music. It might even remind you of Voivod’s Killing Technology LP from 1987. Speed is not essential to Gutvoid, nor is remaining within a death-doom tempo. They use the lead guitar to enhance the tension rather than bedazzle the listener with technical brilliance.
Fans of old school death metal will appreciate ‘Of Smothering Sea’ for its raw intensity. Clanging arpeggios accentuate the extreme claustrophobia. Paranoia is another emotion underpinning this LP. Listen how the drummer uses double-kick eighth notes to create a simmering tension. The barbarous vocals suit the music rather than fit into it for want of anything better. As a band that know their sound and purpose and what counts as a deviation, it means there’s no need to expand the frontiers of their music. This is a testament to their clarity of vision, but it also leaves the listener with no surprises. Your job is to survive the horrors of Gutvoid’s apocalyptic battlefield under the paralysis of stress and exhaustion. Adrenaline is your only weapon.
Going into the final third of the album to face two tracks longer than ten minutes each is no easy feat. But Gutvoid have already enclosed you in a world of hopeless despair, which makes it tolerable to lie inert on the floor with thoughts of death jamming your brain. On a musical level, the question is how you can tell these songs apart. Would you know the difference between ‘Lead Me Beyond the Sleeping I’ and ‘Of Smothering Sea’ after two listens if somebody blindfolded you and made you choose?
A video collection of catastrophic scenes from low budget sci-fi films of the 1970s and 1980s would be the perfect visual representation of closing track, ‘Chasm of Displaced Souls’. The violent crunch of the opening guitar rhythm gives you one of the few opportunities during this record to feel the strength of resistance running through your veins. Here, drummer, D.W. Lee, employs the blast beats with a smothering of the snares like a black metal sticksman. Guitar intervals use note groupings that do not belong together. Cameo bass fills appear like sudden gusts of wind. The morbid chord slides inflame you with the will to fight back even if fear is the real cause of your struggle. It’s a twelve-minute puzzle, and the stakes are high. Solve it or perish.
Kirk Houghton
Verdict
Release Date: 20/03/2026
Record Label: Profound Lore
Standout tracks: Spell Reliquary; Chasm of Displaced Souls
Suggested Further Listening: Vektor – Terminal Redux (2016), Cryptic Shift – Visitations from Enceladus (2020), Hooded Menace – Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration (2025)