Scour Gold CD Review

I know I'll get a lot of shit for this, but it's the truth. I was never a Pantera fan. And while I feel the heat from the collective faces of rage that statement has caused, I will say that I did own a copy of 'Cowboys From Hell' and admired Dime as he was (and still is) one of the greatest heavy metal guitarists of all time. He also inspired countless budding musicians to pick up a guitar and pursue their dreams. And now that I've come off that tangent, I was also never a fan of Superjoint Ritual or Down. Quite frankly, I never really connected with or enjoyed much of any project that Phil Anselmo was associated with...until now.

Having been around for close to a decade, 'Gold' is Scour's first full length album and keeps with the tradition of titling their releases after colors (their previous three EPs were 'Grey', 'Red' and 'Black'). There is some serious muscle here to bring this bleak and blinding masterpiece to life as aside from Phil, Agoraphobic Nosebleed bassist John Jarvis is on bass, his cousin Adam Jarvis  of Pig Destroyer and Misery Index is on drums and Mark Kloeppel also of Misery Index is on guitar. With this lineup in place, one would expect nothing but the best and let me say that this album is fucking solid.

I have to give credit where it's due and praise Phil's vocal performance here as there are points and times when he reminds me of Shagrath and Abbath. Further solidifying that mindset is that some songs sound like they could be from Dimmu Borgir's or Immortal's catalog, even at times bringing Satyricon into the mix - I'm looking at you "Invoke", "Coin", "Gold" and "Serve". The opener "Cross" is a primal concrete sledge (see what I did there?) to the face! It's absolutely brutal and sets the tone and pace for the rest of the album. Very seldom does it relinquish its hold on you save for "Angel" which is a noise track. I feel as if 'Gold' is as good as it gets with modern black metal and is an absolute must listen for any fan of the genre.

~TJ