Concise, abrasive, rage-filled blasts. Big thrash, hardcore, and punky metal shoved into little jagged capsules. Such is Gylt’s new and approximately 12-minute album, In 1,000 Agonies, I Exist, the follow-up to their 2024 eight-minute EP, I Will Commit a Holy Crime.
“Bone Rake” features blowtorch guitars and lycanthropic vocals, pivoting between a loping rhythm and a straightforward grind-and-pound. “Inherent Violence” is self-explanatory, but if you’re unsure about the band’s message, you can zoom in on certain key phrases and declarations delivered by frontperson/channel Iphigenia: “putrid heart”, “living hell”, “fated for strife”, and the kicker-reminder, “Death stalks you, my old friend”. And, of course, there are the chainsaw guitars and drums that could punch a hole in a bank safe.
“Intimidated”, all one minute of it, will bring to mind the Epitaph-signed Drain, both acts driven by sizzling, riff-adjacent guitars and vocals that refuse to be ignored. Also, there’s the proverbial nature-as-demonic and/or universe-as-unsympathetic-to-the-human-plight perspective: “Horror, it’s all by design”. Philip K. Dick would agree, as would philosophic patron, Thomas Hobbes, who subscribed to the notion that humans are naturally competitive, egoistic, and willing to do whatever to mitigate the inevitable suffering of existence.
“Wrought/Rot”, despite its fuck-you-if-you-can’t-take-it stance, is relatively melodic – instrumentally, for sure, and to a degree, vocally. Guitars erupt out of rhythmic patterns to explore trebly runs – meanderings full of acid and quasi-vibrato. On “Weak”, guitars similarly vary in intensity and tone, as descending and ascending lines recur. Drums are splashy, less staccato. Pace is slightly slower, the overall feel sludgier.
“Choked Up” brings to mind the Black Flag legacy, including the vitriolic and confrontive aspects of Chat Pile. “O torment, an empire built on shit”, Iphigenia sneers, referring, perhaps, to his own life, but certainly to contemporary society – with its ethical vacuities – as well as whatever second-rate cosmic matrix might be in place. I mean, things pretty much went south when Lucifer was driven out of paradise for raising his hand and saying, “Uh, could we consider ….” Nihilismus inevitabilis erat.
Honed style, check. Distinct presence, check. Volume, movement, and convincingly apoplectic proclivities, check. With In 1,000 Agonies, I Exist, as with I Will Commit a Holy Crime, Gylt remain versatile within hyper-compressed templates. Less is indeed more.
