Gorguts is a technical death metal/avant-garde metal band that formed in 19… Read Full Bio ↴Gorguts is a technical death metal/avant-garde metal band that formed in 1989 in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. They have released five full-length albums to date, and released their first EP 'Pleiades' Dust' in 2016, which consists of a single 33-minute song. The band has experienced numerous lineup changes and musical transformations since their inception, with founding guitarist/vocalist Luc Lemay being the only remaining founding member. In 2005, following the suicide of drummer Steve MacDonald, the band broke up. Lemay later revived the band and returned with Colored Sands in 2013 and a new lineup featuring Colin Marston, Kevin Hufnagel, and John Longstreth.

The original lineup of the band featured Luc Lemay (guitar/vocals), Sylvain Marcoux (guitar), Eric Giguere (bass) and Stephane Provencher (drums) in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. They recorded a demo in 1990 entitled ...and Then Comes Lividity, and then in 1991 released Considered Dead on Roadrunner, their first full-length album. The release featured a guest guitar solo by James Murphy and guest vocals by Chris Barnes. Two years later in 1993, they released their second full-length, entitled The Erosion of Sanity. Similar in style to their debut, this album had showed Gorguts had indeed developed in musicianship. However, this album was overlooked and became an unheard classic for many years.

The band fell silent for five years. Many assumed Gorguts was no more, until 1998 when Luc Lemay unveiled a new lineup and unleashed a classic in avant-garde death metal, Obscura, which many will agree is the most technical, chaotic and downright lucid metal album ever recorded. Filled with irregular beats, discordant riffing, and complex song arrangements, Obscura turned out to be either indigestible by many, or seen for its true beauty by few. Three years later, Gorguts returned once again with From Wisdom to Hate. Some consider this release to be a digression from Obscura, but it was still much in the same avant-garde/technical vein. Dan Mongrain of Martyr was recruited for the second guitarist on this album, contributing to the writing process and lead guitar work as well.

After being out of print for many years, Roadrunner Records re-released their first two albums on a single disc, and Galy Record re-released their 1990 demo along with many other demo tracks throughout the years. In October 2002, drummer Steve MacDonald hanged himself after suffering from years of depression. The band split up in 2005 and reformed in 2008.

As of December 2008, a demo track of Gorguts featuring guitar and programmed drums which was previously unheard by the public surfaced online, and Lemay himself confirmed an upcoming reunion featuring Colin Marston, Kevin Hufnagel and John Longstreth. While the new Gorguts has been performing live and writing new material, Lemay stated that the band would not be entering the studio until the "late fall" of 2010.

The band is currently signed to Season of Mist. The band's fifth album, Colored Sands, was released on August 30, 2013, although it was released digitally a month earlier after a leak of the material online. A concept album about the history of Tibet, Colored Sands was rapturously received in many publications and appeared in many year-end best-of lists. The band cited Porcupine Tree and Opeth as influences on the album's lengthier compositions, as well as Dmitri Shostakovich and Krzysztof Penderecki on its neoclassical string interlude "The Battle of Chamdo".

In 2014, John Longstreth, whose schedule with Origin was incompatible with Gorguts, departed the band. His replacement, Patrice Hamelin, had already been performing live with Gorguts since 2011. In 2015, Obscura, which had been out of print on CD for decades, was re-released by both Century Media and Season of Mist. It also received a new vinyl pressing from Season of Mist (it had previously been released on vinyl by War on Music). Century Media also reissued From Wisdom to Hate (also previously released on vinyl by War on Music) on vinyl. A two-CD set of both albums was issued by Mazzar Records in 2016.

The band's first EP, Pleiades' Dust, was officially released on May 13, 2016. A concept album about the House of Wisdom in Baghdad during Europe's Dark Ages, it consists of a single track divided into seven movements. The band cited Deathspell Omega as a musical influence this time around. Reception thus far has been almost unanimously positive.

Nostalgia
Gorguts Lyrics

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Latest being drowned
In fictive degradation
Coming depression revolved
Around an Earth
Nostalgia excludes the whole

As spleen takes over me
Resound, the echoes of my threnodies

And then the fact of being
Has no longer meaning
The hymns of light
They'll sing once I'll be gone

Reverie appears cause
Existence collapse

Nostalgia
Sadness shall obnuilate

Sadness, feels, the desolated

Desperately lost within
Lament, pain and misery
The more lies burden lives,
The more I am dying
The realm of light
I'll reach once I'll

Latest feeling drowned
In lucid contradiction
Coming relation revolved
Around a heart
Nostalgia excludes the whole

Desperately lost within
Lament, pain and misery
The more lies burden lives,
The more I am dying
The realm of light
I'll reach once I'll

Latest feeling drowned
In lucid contradiction
Coming relation revolved

Around a heart
Nostalgia excludes the whole

Overall Meaning

The song "Nostalgia" by Gorguts explores the theme of depression and the feeling of being lost and disconnected from the world. The opening lines describe the feeling of being overwhelmed and drowned by a fictive degradation and a coming depression, which revolves around the planet Earth. The use of the word nostalgia in the lyrics points towards a sense of longing for a past that no longer exists, and this nostalgia is described as excluding the whole. This can be interpreted as a feeling of detachment and alienation from the world and people around the singer.

As the song progresses, the lyrics become more introspective and describe the internal struggle of the singer. The spleen takes over, a reference to the melancholic temperament in which individuals withdraw from the world and focus on their own feelings of despair. The echoes of threnodies (a type of lament) resound within the singer, and the fact of being alive no longer has any meaning. The hymns of light that will sing once the singer is gone suggest a yearning for an escape from the pain and suffering of existence.

Line by Line Meaning

Latest being drowned
Feeling overwhelmed by current events

In fictive degradation
Struggling with perceived failure or decline

Coming depression revolved
Circling around impending sadness

Around an Earth
Concerned with global issues

Nostalgia excludes the whole
Longing for the past ignores the present

As spleen takes over me
Bitterness consumes me

Resound, the echoes of my threnodies
My sad songs echo back to me

And then the fact of being
The reality of existence

Has no longer meaning
Seems meaningless

The hymns of light
Songs of hope

They'll sing once I'll be gone
Only after my death will they be heard