Scour - Gold

Scour is an extreme metal band from the United States that formed in 2015.  Their latest release, “Gold,” is their full-length debut; they have also released three EPs.  

Unless you have been under a grave or catatonic,  Scour is a super group of sorts that most notably features the legendary Philip H. Anselmo on vocals.  He can be quite the controversial figure but I’m not here to discuss any of that.  I want to talk about how kick ass Scour’s debut full-length is.  

Phil’s vocals have aged amazingly well, actually seem to get better with age.  If I was unfamiliar with him, I probably wouldn’t even guess this is him on vocals—he’s absolutely brutal and uncompromising across the album. 

The band itself is made up of well known musicians as well:  bassist John Jarvis (Agoraphobic Nosebleed, All Will Fall), Derek Engemann (Cast The Stone, Stormruler), Adam Jarvis (Pig Destroyer, Lock Up. Misery Index), and Mark Kleppel (Cast The Stone, Misery Index).    As you can probably imagine, all these musicians coming together make “Gold” a vicious album but one that also exists within extreme dynamics.  Across the album’s blistering 13 song, 37 minute runtime, my ears were ruined by grindcore, thrash, black, death, and just about any other kind of music that goes against the grain.   It’s not groundbreaking or reinventing any wheels but it isn’t supposed to either—this is a bunch of great musicians making music they want to make.  I’m all here for it. 

The production is surprisingly clean and polished—more than I expected it to be.  Opinions on that will vary and although I wouldn’t have complained for something sounding a little more ‘rough’ and ‘dirty,’ it’s hard to complain when this much extremity is able to smoothly and clearly blow my face off. 

The opening song, “Cross,” tells you all you need to know about this, at least in terms of overall sound and style.  It opens with a harrowing scream as Phil rips through like a hurricane.  The music is fast and just groovy enough to keep the blackened music surprisingly memorable.  The drums are out of this world—inhumanely fast but tight and crisp.  An album of this style needs to make a strong statement—they picked a perfect banger of a song.

“Infusorium,” dials back the tempo a bit as the urgent music fades into the forefront.  The riffs are evil as hell and the groove of the drums/bass are undeniable.  The slower pace works for them but they soon speed things up, because why the fuck not?  The riffs are almost dizzying, the song being the audio form of whiplash from being rear ended by a tank. The solo near the end is a nice twist—surprisingly melodic but works with the song. 

The song “Evil,” is goddamn appropriate—this one nasty song.  The atmosphere is hellish as it sends my ears down a tunnel of sulfur.  Phil’s lows are crazy—how can this dude still sound like this? Amazing.   There is a white hot urgency to this song and it never lets you forget it.  

Another appropriately titled song, “Hell,” has some of the more intricate guitar work and a lot of solid moments of hellish gallops and a tinge of melody here and there.  Like all the songs, groove seems to be the center of attention and there isn’t anything wrong with that. 

“Gold,” is the longest song at four minutes.  Expanding the runtime a bit lets the band play around a little more with their sound—I’d like to see more of this in the future.  It has all the hallmarks of the songs before it but just more of it!  You know what’s wrong with that?  Oh wat, nothing. 

The final song, “Serve,” is one of the more methodical ones that has a tragic, end times feel to it.  It’s a subtle sort of atmosphere but the band steers it well. But they still have plenty of time to throw in blackened speed and hammering drums of death.  A solid of an album closer as I’ve heard this year.

Scour’s “Gold,” is a tight package of varying degrees of extremity from musicians who clearly  have a love for the style.  

Rating:  Solid