Review: Tribal Gaze - The Nine Choirs

Tribal Gaze recently and seemingly came out of nowhere in 2021. Their debut EP, Godless Voyage, was a thick, heavy, and beastly release. It was just flat out a bulldozer of an album hellbent on destroying all as it chugged away. It was the perfect length that flew by and immediately left you wanting more. 

It's 2022 and Maggot Stomp is giving us that more with the band's first full length. To many, Maggot Stomp now comes with preconceived notions of what their bands will sound like. That notion wouldn't be too far off on Tribal Gaze, but also falls short in encompassing all they are. 

Yes, there are dummy thick guitars slinging knuckle dragging caveman riffs a plenty, but it's not simplistic overall. They shine at all the right moments. Nice little flourishes of tasteful leads that simmer right back down to absolutely pummeling riffs. Words like abominable, monolithic, crushing, etc come to mind to quickly describe the album. It picks up where the EP left off and hits the ground running. Well, more like steamrolling. 

Some detractors will bitch about there being a hardcore influence in this, mainly some vocal stylings in parts, and they can calm the fuck down and move right along with their gatekeeping bitch fest. In recent years, we've seen an influx of old school death metal styled bands coming out and the lines between hardcore and death metal blurring even more. Note, it's not deathcore. Maybe if Morbid Angel decided to slow it down a touch and add some hardcore influence here and there? 

I can't think of a time when hardcore was this accepting of death metal. As a lifelong fan of both, I love it. A lot of this NWOOSDM (is that a thing? New Wave of Old School Death Metal?) really is painted by the numbers and uninspired, but Tribal Gaze is not that. No, it's not breaking down any walls or raising the bar, but it is honing in on what they know and love and perfecting it.

The Nine Choirs gives us more of what we wanted on Godless Voyage, almost exactly double the amount in it's perfect length of 36 minutes. It's a complete ass beater of an album. A lot of that obviously goes to the songwriting, but let's give kudos to whoever recorded this thing. The production is simply put, HUGE and it pays off in adding so much to the energy of the album. It's one surely to demand attention and with more touring, get their name out there to grow the fanbase deservingly more. 

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