Band: Question

Album: “Gnosis Primordial”

Label: Chaos Records (http://www.chaos-records.com/)

Released: January 27, 2017

Greetings slothful thralls. Sometimes you look at an album cover and go “hey, isn’t that the thing from the thing?” and yeah, it’s not, but it’s similar and you’re really happy with yourself for making that connection. That was me when I saw this EP’s cover and thought of the Leviathan obelisk from Hellraiser 2, and I think we can all agree what a smart observation that is because it’s not at all obvious so shush.

So who decided to have these black pointy things on their cover? The answer is Question, a Mexican band who’ve been around since 2012 with a demo and full length under their belts, but their new EP “Gnosis Primordial” is my first exposure to them. I waited patiently for two months the CD to arrive, as we in Canada are a primitive people whose international mail arrives slowly and whose TV signals are improved by adjusting the moose antlers on our igloos. I dig Question’s stunningly simple yet blasphemous band name, and holy Hell is their new EP is something to behold. Behear? Whatever. Here we go.

So you pop this one in and HOLY SHITBALLS it’s exactly what you want, death metal from a dimension where parallel lines meet and intermingle at awkward social events. It has a strong guitar tone with a touch of grit, and a deep, twangy bass that ruptures the fabric of reality with spasms of divine uncertainty. The whole thing has a very old-school feel with hints of abstract weirdness that remind me of classic weirdo Finnish bands like Sentenced or Demigod and we all know that’s always good fuckin news. Three songs in, “Silhouettes of Reality” is an acoustic, atmospheric piece that serves as a nice bridge between the EP’s two halves. It gets unceremoniously kicked out of the way by the obnoxiously awesome opening to “Descent into Oblivion,” another corker with a great bouncing riff near the middle point. “Gnosis Primordial” is 24 minutes of death metal that just fly by. Each track is solid and well-crafted; there isn’t a dull moment on this, and it perplexingly leaves you satisfied while also wanting more.

After listening to this EP I went and checked out their debut “Doomed Passages,” and while it’s excellent in its own right and absolutely worth your time, “Gnosis Primordial” manages to improve on it in every way. This is simply some of the best goddamned death metal I’ve heard in 2017 and, if they continue this way, I can only imagine the monster that their second album will be. Until then, Question can count “Gnosis Primordial” as a second glorious notch in their bedpost.

https://chaos-records.bandcamp.com/album/gnosis-primordial

You can find the Voidhanger on twitter talking about black metal and squirrels.