The extreme Italian metal scene has thrown up quite a flurry of talented, interesting and crushingly heavy bands in the last few years. Gory Blister are one such band, although they are still relatively unknown compared to the likes of Fleshgod Apocalypse, who have been taking the extreme underground by storm.

In a similar way to the aforementioned band, Gory Blister are technical masters; Italian musical wizardry is everywhere on this album. There are some incredible displays of guitar prowess throughout; fantastic, rip-roaring guitar solos, complex, athletic single note riffs, and some downright odd jazz-type chords. Forget the blood-soaked band moniker; these guys are no gore-grind, splatter-fiends.  They instead have a highly sophisticated approach to the music and the lyrics, preferring progression, introspection, and creativity to relentless, brutal blasting. That is not to say they don’t know how to bludgeon – there is plenty of heavy, crushing nastiness on `Earth-Sick’.

One thing that can be said for sure about this band; they really know how to write a killer riff. This is quite a rare thing for an ultra-technical band; it is clear that at least one member of the band has a profound love for classic metal, as there are oodles of fantastic, bluesy, melodic solos as well as heavy, crunchy, memorable riffs scattered liberally throughout the album. Another plus point for these guys; they actually write songs as well, rather than piles of complex riffs. The songs are complex of course, with many twists, turns and surprises, but reassuringly cyclical. In fact, after repeated listens, some parts even get stuck in your head. The vocals are dark and aggressive, but never descend into mindless pig-grunts, which definitely scores points with me, and the lyrics are enunciated pretty clearly. Nilefans may like to note that the legendary Karl Sanders appears on two of the tracks on the album, adding his dark and grim vocals to the proceedings.

In terms of ability, Gory Blister are faultless; every note, drum beat and guttural roar are precision perfect. This is aided by a great, balanced production – some technical death metal releases are rendered flat and lacking atmosphere by a production as dry as a paper factory in theSaharadesert (or something else equally as dry!). All instruments, drums and vocals manage to be clear, yet there is still a lot of heavy, dramatic atmosphere throughout.

This album is not quite perfect however. There are indeed some fantastic metal moments throughout, as well as soaring guitar solos, majestic, atmospheric keyboard moments, and some unusual, hypnotic, jazzy sections, yet the songs on `Earth Sick’ fall just short of being metal masterpieces. Maybe it is the overly technical nature of these songs that renders them slightly too difficult to get into fully, or maybe the occasionally haphazard juxtaposition of different styles that makes the music slightly too jarring to flow evenly. I know they are a technical band, and that is the point, but even so, it seems that they just miss the mark ever so slightly.

It is clear that Gory Blister are a talented, accomplished band with a lot to offer, as well as huge musical repertoire. Fans of technical death metal (Anata, Necrophagist, Atheist etc) should definitely find something they like in here. It isn’t the technical death metal album to end all others, but it has a lot of good things about it.

(7/10 Jon Butlin)

www.goryblister.com