GOREMENT — The Ending Quest (review)

Album · 1994 · Death Metal

4/5 · 2014-12-23
UMUR

"The Ending Quest" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Gorement. The album was released through Crypta Records in May 1994. The original version was limited to 1000 CD copies. "The Ending Quest" has since in it´s full form been re-released as part of the "Darkness of the Dead (2004)" compilation and again as part of the "Within the Shadow of Darkness - The Complete Recordings (2012)" compilation. Before releasing "The Ending Quest", Gorement had two demos and a single under their belt.

The music on the album is old school Swedish death metal with what I would characterize as British doom/death elements. The tracks are generally incredibly heavy, doomy, and brutal but often with a melodic lead guitar theme leading the way. I´m instantly reminded of "Lost Paradise (1990)"-era Paradise Lost, but with an old school Swedish death metal twist, which means that "The Ending Quest" is actually quite the varied release. Both rhythmically (from slow doomy sections to faster paced sections) and compositionally. The tracks are packed with great compositional details that often leave impact on the listener. Gorement know exactly when to take a track down to a crushingly brutal doomy pace to great effect and then speed up again before that effect grows stale. A short acoustic section, a bell toll here and an epic keyboard part thrown in there, yes this is certainly a band, who understands the importance of variation and compositional details.

...and it´s not like the music is overtly sophisticated or anything like that. In fact it´s often pretty simple with very basic riffs and rhythms being played and quite often there are both awkward rhythm shifts and odd compositional ideas thrown in, but Gorement somehow manage to make it work.

The band are relatively well playing and the growling vocals are convincing and brutal and suit the music well. I´m sure the recordings could have been a bit more tight, but considering the fact that "The Ending Quest" was recorded and mixed in 11 days during February 1993 at Delta Studio in Wilster, Germany, the result is satisfactory. The same can be said about the murky and dark sound production, which provides the music with the right gloomy atmosphere.

When speaking of old School Swedish death metal it´s often names like Entombed, Dismember, Grave, Edge of Sanity and Unleashed that are mentioned and not so often names like Sorcery, God Macabre and Gorement, but do yourself a favour, if you are not familiar with the lesser known acts in the genre, and seek out releases by some of those acts, because there are some real hidden gems out there, and one of them is "The Ending Quest". A great album that deserves a lot more attention than it´s probably gotten in the last almost 20 years since it´s initial release. Fortunately because of the existence of the two compilations mentioned above you might even be able to find a copy. A 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.