The totally insane, genius metal violence of Gezan
I am not really a metal fan or a hard rock fan, I find most of the representatives of these two genres predictable and boring. But Gezan is totally unpredictable and very exciting. I like to listen to it during running, and then I imagine I am the singer of this band, a demon of angry agression, unleashing my insane wrath unto the world. It’s very liberating.
Last year I missed that Gezan had a new album out in September. I’ve been listening to it continually these past months, I love it so much. Each song is a composition, really, very much like Beethoven’s Fifth, consisting of different parts, telling a story with music.
Take the above song, ‘No God‘, for instance. An atheist pamphlet, really. Rhythmic panting and a slow, dry drum beat sets the tone, rather frightening, and then and eruption of loud guitars, a pulsing bass and an ear-deafening primal scream follows. It’s like tanks rolling in. The singer yells “NO! GOD!” repeatedly. as if to say: Abandon all hope, we are here to destroy everything you believe in. After which he starts this outlandish rapping, like voices in your head, tearing down your last mental defences. Next the violence begins again and a kind of choir starts chanting: “Make your new God by yourself. Make your new God by yourself”. Like a Buddhist mantra mixed with Hindu mythology.
Barrel of noise
It’s totally radically new and profoundly insane. Their whole repertoire is like this, singer screaming against the background of rumbling guitars, then an intermezzo of rap and often several complete changes of rhythm and atmosphere in one song. Gezan may sound like a barrel of noise at first, but there’s method to their madness. It’s all intricately constructed and ingeniously performed.
There’s a rather intelligent review of Gezan’s 2014 album It Was Said to Be A Song here, in which the writer puts the band in the context of Japan’s habit of internalizing foreign cultural influences in such a way that they became unmistakably Japanese. It’s the most intelligent music review I have ever read.
I don’t care their last album Silence Will Speak is from last year, it will end up on my list of favorites of 2019, for sure. (PB)
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