Over the course of its decade-plus
existence, the Canadian quartet Gorguts has made the transition
from being a highly skilled, yet still somewhat run-of-the-mill
death metal band, to being one of the most advanced,
experimental, and challenging groups in the entire genre. In the
process, they have confounded many fans of their earlier records
(and death metal in general) while at the same time earning the
attention and respect of many listeners outside the metal
community. The Quebec, Canada-based band formed in 1989 with a
lineup consisting of Luc Lemay (guitar, vocals), Sylvain Marcoux
(guitar), Eric Giguere (bass), and Stephane Provencher (drums).
They released the cassette-only demo And Then Comes Lividity in
1990, which led them to sign with Roadrunner Records. Their
full-length debut, Considered Dead, came out in 1991 and
featured guest appearances by guitarist James Murphy (Death) and
vocalist Chris Barnes (Cannibal Corpse). The Erosion of Sanity
followed in 1993 and continued to mine a similar vein. However,
coinciding with the decline of death metal's popularity peak,
they were subsequently dropped from the Roadrunner roster.
The band then went into
a five-year state of limbo, during which all members except
Lemay left; in fact, many fans and observers assumed them to
have broken up. However, they eventually returned -- drastically
retooled -- with Steeve Hurdle (guitar/vocals), Steve Cloutier (bass),
and Patrick Robert (drums) filling in the missing slots. Signed
to Olympic Records, this lineup released Obscura (1998), an
uncompromising, hugely ambitious album that met with a mixed
reception: some applauded its experimentation, while others
found it too far-out and dissonant. Hurdle left Gorguts after
this album and was replaced by Daniel Mongrain of the Canadian
technical metal group Martyr. From Wisdom to Hate, Gorguts'
first album with Mongrain, followed in early 2001.