ALBUM REVIEW: GURT - Satan Etc.

Party Doom- two words you would rarely put together, but this is how London Based GURT describe themselves, and if this is their idea of a party, get me an invite. Formed in 2010, and after a slew of EP's, and coming five years after their last album Bongs of Praise they deliver album number four Satan Etc. It’s a more aggressive and abrasive album than they have produced before. Some of this is due to issues in various members lives (tragic losses, welcoming new arrivals to the family), as well as the events of 2020. So, the songs became shorter and punchier, but the topics on offer remain interesting, ranging from botched vasectomy, the love of brown cars, self-pleasure on Arrakis and the singer’s love for his children.

GURT - Photo by Mithun Shah

So, to the music. The guitars, courtesy of Rich Williams, are crushingly Doom in sections, but always have a great underlying riff, often quite bluesy but squarely grounded in the seventies sounds of Sabbath et al. The vocals of Gareth Kelly are often a gargled scream which is hard to understand, at times almost feral, and they work well with the music, whilst the rhythm section (David Blakemore on bass and Bill Jacobs on drums) give a very solid grounding to the rest of the band. Over the 40 minutes we get nine songs, the longest being six minutes and 11 seconds, but they never feel long as the music wanders through both fast and slow sections and is often quite experimental in places. I particularly liked Exit as You Enter and Sandworm Fleshlight, with their stop/start guitars and underlying bass line, but the central section of final track Electric Brown is a sublime instrumental section. I had never heard of GURT before this, I will be rectifying this now though, with a deep dive into their back catalogue coming soon.

Satan Etc is released on 7th June on When Planets Collide on 7th June

Review by Andrew Matthews