GULAGGH : Vorkuta

GULAGGH REVIEW: GULAGGH - 'VORKUTA' -PROMO CD. :THE REVIEW: (by Johan, ominousrecordings.com, july 2008) Stalaggh is dead, the phenomenon has come to an end. But safety is still nowhere to be found, because another beast has taken its place – its name is Gulaggh. When I first heard of Stalaggh, I new that it would be out of this world. Since the first coming, the self-titled 7’’, I have been unable to fully enjoy any other group performing similar audio terror. Because none of them have ever felt so real, so terrifyingly evil, so uneasy or so haunting as the sounds that Stalaggh have been able to unleash upon the poor souls of mankind. Now the saga has ended, and Stalaggh has transformed into the second beast. Gulaggh shows that the group is able to renew their own sound, each haunting release is worse than the one before. And if they haven’t reached their peak now, I am not sure if I want to hear the next step. This Gulaggh promo-CD that has been handed to me by the members themselves starts with a sample of a Russian speech, then it becomes coated with grinding noises, brass instruments, it’s easy to say that it’s noiseier than the earlier records and the sound is more uneasy than ever before. But as the record goes on, spastic drums enter and disappear, enter and disappear, like promises of change but never keeping their promise. The use of brass instruments is magnificent, especially in this kind of noisy music and it brings a far more psychotic dimension to it than a more ordinary instrument could. From the first piercing scream of a child I feel sick, I heard that they used children’s screams this time, but where unable to understand fully how disturbing it was going to be and I probably didn’t believe it either. Now that I listen to it, it hits me that this may be the worst thing ever recorded. Associations the first time I heard it was rather biblical, as if all of the ten plagues were upon mankind at the same time, directed by a psychotic demon with a trumpet or saxophone, or sinners being cleansed of their sins in a none-redeeming purgatory, maybe even a hell gone very wrong, and children were the first to be consumed by fire and burned to dust. This is as sick as it gets, and I want it to be over. Still, I can’t turn it off, I am too amazed, too horrified, too impressed, too much of a self-abuser to turn this off. But at the same time, if you think of what time we live in, in what kind of society we live in, this is more than a sick record. It’s a soundtrack. When children are terrorized by domestic abuse, incest, isolation, sexual/physical/psychological abuse and eating disorders every day, this could as well be the soundtrack to a generation of children that society has abandoned. It’s provoking art, psychotic culture, it’s more than just sickness in audio. The mental health among children and teenagers in the western civilization is getting worse - which this record more or less proves – the possibility to find suitable help gets smaller and society tries to do as little as possible. Prescription on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs are handed out to them, just to get them off their hands. No wonder that the suicide rates are increasing amongst children and teenagers across the world. When it’s finally over at 45:10, I feel empty, robbed of something, like Gulaggh has taken something from me, but I can’t say what it is. My recommendation is that you let them take that from you as well. Let them break you, reach inside you and carve out that piece of you that they want. It’s worth it!