Formed in 2020, Guyođ plays blackened death/doom metal. Originally from Austria, the band made their recording debut in 2023 with the album Heart of Thy Abyss. At the start of this year, the band is making a comeback with a new EP entitled Death Throes of a Drowning God, scheduled for release on 23 January. The record will be released on CD via Grazil Records and on cassette via Corrosion Plague Records.
Death Throes of a Drowning God is an 8-track EP with a total running time of 29:00. Musically, the album falls within the doom/death metal genre with a layer of black metal, giving it a darker and more beastly atmosphere. The guitars alternate between fast and heavily distorted passages, while the drums are aggressive with heavy hits and fast, thunderous blasts. The EP avoids monotony thanks to well-balanced tempo variations, shifting from fast tempos to slower, crushing phases. The vocals are also diverse, with black metal screams, growls, choirs and whispers following one another. However, I feel that the mixing and production could still be improved; I would have liked to hear this EP with more work done on this level.
The EP opens with Signal 00347, an ambient track that immediately sets a dark and gloomy mood. It is followed by tracks with a heavy and oppressive cadence. All the tracks containing the word Signal are ambient interludes, but Signal 05575 is the one that struck me the most, particularly for its almost cosmic and disembodied dimension.
After a first listen, certain passages stand out in particular. On A Thousand Invisible Eyes, the beastly unleashing of the instruments from 1:53 onwards is striking, as is the diabolical scream at 2:25. The atmosphere becomes even more dominant from 4:41 onwards, and I also enjoyed the end of the track, marked by the use of choirs and whispers. The track Behind Walls of Ice immediately strikes with its high-pitched, guttural vocals, particularly at 1:11. From 2:19 onwards, a bass solo dominates the heavy soundscape, and from 4:34 onwards, the vocal performance further reinforces the feeling of terror within an already deeply horrific atmosphere.
Vortex of Infinite Despair is a fast-paced track, clearly rooted in old-school black metal, with transitions into death metal. The passage that stands out most to me is the repetitive composition starting at 2:09, which leads to a particularly mighty scream at 2:22 (arguably the most intense on the EP) carried by guitars that create a dark and suffocating atmosphere. The screams of despair starting at 5:45 also catch the listener's attention. Hestia Drowning begins with a slow and morbid instrumental introduction; at times, I felt an almost tribal dimension to it. On this track, the drums stand out in particular with what I consider to be more technical playing, before briefly returning to an accelerated rhythm at 3:43, then plunging back into a slower and heavier cadence.
