Mini album number two is even more unsettling
MV might not be able to speak many different languages, but crikey we know how to work Google. Thus a definition for the word “Litost” is easier to get than you might think:
This from Collins English Dictionary: “this Czech term means ‘a state of agony and torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery’.
Or if you prefer being all street and that innit, here’s what Urban Dictionary has to say on the subject: “Litost connects insult to revenge, with desire to strike back at the perceived source of one’s shame.”
Look either way, this ain’t the EP to play your nan this Christmas – unless your nan is awesome of course and likes old school doom done right.
As you might expect from a band named after a deadly wolf, Gevaudan are an unsettling bunch.
They proved that on last year’s debut three tracker, “Message The Damned” which emerged around 18 months ago. “Litost” is more than just more of the same too, as this is band that evidently not content with ploughing the same furrow. Instead, Gevaudan have constructed that is at once familiar, yet gratifyingly vital and fresh as a (dead) daisy.
Like the debut there are just three songs here, but it clocks in at very nearly half an hour of music brimming with all kinds of possibilities.
The Wildhearts once released an album called “Riff After Riff After Motherfucking Riff” that would do as a subtitle for “Litost”. Opener “Waves Eternal” packs about a million into its 10 minutes, as well as a genuine sense of foreboding.
Crucially there’s a spoken word part to it too, and that gets utilised to wonderful effect on “The Ninth Circle”. Adam Pirmohamed’s vocal performance is astonishing throughout – but here he is almost reciting dark poetry, but you are compelled by his descent into Hell – and actually there are echoes of the band of that name too, as the theatrics play out.
“Lord Of Decay” provides no let ups either on this unremitting collection, but does add a kind of fuzzy lead bit towards the end – and is topped off by the only growling vocals on what was mostly a clean menu this time around.
Gevaudan know their way around the greats of this type of music. The spectre of early Sabbath is all over this, but rather than some dumb wade through a trad slew that so many other bands of this type settle for, this quartet are out to make their own mark.
Yet again, they’ve done so quite brilliantly.
Rating 9/10
