#gangrened

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Turbulent Times (Instrumental Jam) by Gangrened

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Triptaani by Gangrened

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Kuningatar by Gangrened from the album Deadly Algorithm

[doomedandstoned]

Gangrened Conjure Dizzying Atmosphere in ‘Deadly Algorithm’

~Review by Billy Goate~

Before us lies an enigma called 'Deadly Algorithm' (2021) by Finnish band GANGRENED, whom we've introduced you to before, when they dropped that wonderfully dreary doomer 'We Are Nothing' (2014). Let me share with you the diary of my thoughts as I immersed myself in their recently released full-length.

Deadly Algorithm by Gangrened

Deadly Algorithm starts with gentle, quiet picking that echoes faintly, but already surrounds us with a strange, if inviting, airspace. A melodic line develops as "Harrbåda" gains volume, building it seems towards a crescendo -- then suddenly stopping as a drumroll interrupts. The atmosphere returns to quirks and quarks, increasingly distorted notes, spikes of reverberating rhythm. All the while, the same short impermanent melodic motif makes its statement, until it flitters away into the void.

Deadly Algorithm by Gangrened

"Triptaani" makes a strong entrance, this time with galled vocal attack and a slow, but strong, guitar lead girded by the fuzz-sparked gears of bass and drum languidly moving this machine along. A hail of shredding follows, with cymbals crashing to a throbbing beat, leading to one ardent chord laid upon another. Eventually the pace slows to a crawl, with dissonant harmonies, and a wild solo from Jon Imbernon that's almost overcome by the industrial crunch of Lassi Männikkö's dumming, Joakim Udd's vile spew of noise, Mikko Mannistö's declamatory singing.

Deadly Algorithm by Gangrened

"Hologrammi" features more familiar doom pacing with a searing riffage, a slow burn flow of bass and drums, and clean (but pissed off) crooning. It's surrounded by a mesmerizing jumble of pedal effects, noise, downtuned instrumental buzz, and crackling amps -- of which make its climactic moment of vocal delivery emphatic and powerful.

Deadly Algorithm by Gangrened

Intricate guitar trilling action introduces “Kuningatar” and it sounds almost like temelos dancing upon its appointed harmonic scale in those opening moments. By the time the rest of the crew sounds off, it turns into a frightening ensemble, indeed. I imagine this would be quite chilling to experience in a live setting. While the vocals feel swallowed up in the great reverberating wall of sound, it seems to add to the mystique of the whole dim sound environment. Psychedelic noodling returns six minutes and if you listen carefully you can hear a seething malediction pronounced sternly beneath the fray of scattered noise, synth, and pedal effects. Great doom returns to ground us to reality and the band improvises a swirl of activity that makes me think of the wandering spirits released from the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Deadly Algorithm by Gangrened

”Triangeli” grabs hold of us with a rumbling bass line that establishes the song’s basic theme, soon to be reinforced by guitar. Meanwhile, words are spoken with accented cymbals and hypnotic drumming. The song ends with whispered lyrics uttered over a soundgarden of riffage, soft cymbals, omnipotent bass rumble, and the cycling sounds of amp feedback. I don't know the words, and the singer refuses to share them, so that means what he's singing is left up to your fertile imagination. Or you can just enjoy the vocal aesthetic and what it contributes to this dense, dark atmosphere.

A cathartic journey, indeed, which I ventured on while I was in an especially discouraged and pissed off mood. Even though I understood not its words, I felt its sentiment and it was in some way cleansing. Available digitally, on vinyl and compact disc as an independent release (order here).

Interviewing Gangrened Guitarist Jon Imbernon

By Billy Goate

You've been a band for quite a while. I understand you are one of the founding members, too. How did Gangrened form to begin with?

Well, we were a bunch of guys living in the same area around ostrobotnia, between kokkola and new karleby, here in the center west coast of finland. so few of us had the idea to do the band so we asked the others, but none of those guys except me are still in the band. high level of mobility because studies in this area of small towns, to bigger cities of Finland.

It sounds like there are challenges keeping a band together in Ostrobotnia? I imagine it makes it ver5y challenging to get new band members to replace the old. Is there much of a music scene to speak of?

Yeah, actually I'm not from here myself. I'm Basque/Spanish and in the specific area I live, like around 110 kilometers or so, there's no real bands or scene, but if you go forward you reach Oulu in the north or Seinajoki, bigger cities with more bands and such. And yes, from the exact spot I live now, I have needed to look more than 100 kms to find new members. I'm moving in a near future to Tampere, so that should help in strengthening the line-up.

So how long has the most recent crew of Gangrened been together?

Since May of 2015, just after some dates we played with Bongzilla in Finland, the entire line-up shifted.

Gangrened basically means "gangrene" right?

It's like "corrupted," you know? Yes, the name comes from the illness.

My grandfather's big toe got infected from a cut because he didn't treat it properly. When he finally went to a doctor, they told him he would have to amputate his foot to live. He refused, stating he wanted to die with both of his feet on. So he officially died of gangrene!

Ouch! Okay...

Did you pick Gangrened for any special reason, like the corruption of society or something like that?

Yeah, that kind of reason. I wanted some grimmy name, but actually now it's getting a bit inappropriate, as we are not so typically doom sludge anymore.

How would you describe/characterize your sound now?

Well, I would say it is deep and varied. Actually, I think this record is like transitional, just because, for example, one song "Hologrammi" is an old song we included. But newer stuff goes beyond what has been previously recorded, take songs like "Triangeli" or "Kuningatar."

Deadly Algorithm by Gangrened

We reviewed 'We Are Nothing' back in 2014, and at the time we described your sound in terms of: "Slow, behemoth sized riffs. Excessive feedback. Fuzz worship." What would you say has changed or is different now, as your sound, style, and general musical approach has evolved?

Well, at some point, just as an exercise of abstraction to what we were doing, how it was turning out with songs like "Triangeli" or "Kuningatar" I decided to look into my whole musical background, and keep on adding elements from it. Also I got bored of the regular sludge-doom thing. So I considered it more interesting, and more comfortable to me, to keep an essence of slow and heavy music, and atmospheric at times, but not so defined inside the regular sludge-doom thing. The atmosphere feels very trippy, even psychedelic at times.

Let's talk about the new album. Why is it called 'Deadly Algorithm'? I think about 10 years ago, I never used the word "algorithm," but now it's a common word that most people at least understand in concept.

Well, I'm studying now in the university again, engineering in information technology, and at same time i'm a person a lot with strong progressive values, so through my studies and also digging on related topics like online privacy or the evolution and development of the new technologies I found alarming how the new technologies are going and its implications.

There are several key things that many people do not think about: smart phones have like six sensors on average to spot your location, plus no company gives services for free. If so, it's because the product is the user of the service. There's no other reason for that. So beginning with these facts, there are a lot of things going on that everyone should be aware of, and the album theme is all about that. Nowadays, data algorithms are making more and more decisions in our lives that no more take into account true needs as humans.

It seems like we have created our own virtual prison, without even realizing it.

Yes, but the thing is who runs the prison? not ourselves at all.

Getting into the songs themselves, are they all sung in Finnish?

Yes. At first some were in english but then the singer decided to sing all songs in Finnish.

Starting with the first song, can you tell us what each title means and what themes you explore?

The first song ("Harrbåda") is simply the name of a coastal area around here. The second ("Triptaani") is a medicine for headaches. The third song ("Hologrammi") is named obviously after a hologram. The fourth ("Kuningatar") means "Queen" and the last ("Triangeli") is "triangle."

Is there any conceptual, thematic, or spiritual relationship between these tracks?

It's quite a personal thing to the singer, he wrote the lyrics and I can't exactly tell you their meaning because Mikko Mannistö is a bit secretive about it. But personal things, yes. Personal matters to him.

Tell us a little bit about the recording process. Where did you record, with whom, and are there any memories that stand out from that time?

Well, we started recording the record in june 2018, with a friend of the singer, at some big rooms in a youth center house. We did most of the recordings with him until February of 2019. At that time, we asked a few people to mix, master, and finish the process. but nothing worked and there was some time wasted waiting for answers.

I decided moving forward we would go with someone who is recording records all the time and known by us, so we asked Tom Brooke, an English guy who lives close to Jyväskylä, runs a studio, and is the live sound technician for Oranssi Pazuzu. So we finished the record, a few more guitar tracks, mixing, and mastering with him.

I remember there was a long time between sessions, so new ideas were constantly coming to us to add to the songs for the next session. That’s why some guitar tracks were added for mixing just the day before starting to mix.

I'm sure you were relieved once all the recording, mixing, and mastering was finally done!

Yeah ! like this is the record and now its totally defined and wrapped up. As a guitarist, what can you tell us about the guitar writing on the new album? Anything that you are especially proud of or that you think the listener should pay special attention to?

The intro is all played by me, and then the weirdest stuff, noisy guitar here and there, and the first half of riffs of triptaani , i'm quite proud of the first two or three riffs, and I used to be proud about some riffs in the middle of "hologrammi." The noisiest and more psyched out guitars of kuningatar.

Tell us about what you, as a guitarist, used in the studio while recording 'Deadly Algorithm'

Well, so I used three guitars to record the album: one Gibson SG Standard from the late '90s, another SG Standard from 1980, and a Gibson Les Paul Classic from around 1991. The SG from the late '90s was ultra-modded -- I changed the finish, pickups, electronics, tuners, but in the end sold it and now it's owned by David from Slomatics. The 1980 I just bought for the recording, so it was all stock. Later, I changed the pickups. The Gibson Les Paul also had all replaced tuners, circuit pickups, and so. It's my main guitar and I used it in most of the songs. The SGs I just used for "Triangeli," the last song.

About effects, I use a Big Muff Fuzz mainly, but also a custom Dunwich Amps FuzzThrone for the ultra heavy parts, like at the end of "Kuningatar." Other effects I used were the Dunlop Echoplex pedal and the Strymon Capistan. I love tape echo sounds and these pedals emulate it. Also, another effect I really like and couldn't live without is the Earthquaker Devices Transmisser. I used it in three of the songs.

Amps used included an '80s Laney AOR Pro Tube and Orange OR120 from 1975 and a late '70s Matamp GT120. Every rhythm guitar track was recorded with two of them at same time, mainly the Matamp and the Laney. That probably is the main sound of the album, but I think "Hologrami" I recorded with the Orange and the Matamp. About cabs, I used two Orange cabs -- one with Eminence speakers the other with WGS speakers.

Have you had a chance to play live at all since the pandemic?

Nope, we haven't been rehearsing either.

If you had your choice to tour with any five bands and play in any five places, what would they be and why?

We are keeping it for when there's no risk of cancellations, we have some date plans and so on, but it sucks to cancel things so we are just waiting. I would play with Unsane in New York for example then some bands I have liked recently, even if some are inactive at this moment. Belzebong, Nightslug, Domkraft, Follakzoid, and the body also.

That would be a sick line-up!

What parts of the world would you like to travel to?

Well, I've never been to America or Asia. I have been to Europe, the UK, and Russia only.

Okay, yeah it would be cool to have you come over here and play for us sometime.

Yeah, would be nice

Lastly, did you all wear your heart on the opposite sides of your head for this photo to give the illusion that your heads are on backwards? Or was it digitally manipulated to make it look like your heads were on the wrong way? I love the concept!

I made that pic myself. I took two photographs, one of us in front and another in the backs. So then I took the heads of the back picture and put on our front bodies pic, with Photoshop. David lynch-ish vibes!

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[doomedandstoned]

D&S Reviews

'We Are Nothing' by Gangrened

By Melissa Marie

Slow, behemoth sized riffs. Excessive feedback. Fuzz worship. I see I have your attention now. Allow me to introduce you to a Finnish sludge band by the name of Gangrened. Check out these guys do what they do best: serve up a sea of monster-sized riffs. What they manage to do is create one of the heaviest sounds I've ever heard, full of grime and disgust. The tone is full of fuzzy hatred and the vocals are pure brutality.

Back in November, these guys made a three track EP, titled 'We Are Nothing' (2014). This will give you nearly half an hour of complete annihilation, it'll give you an audio beatdown. The intensity is overwhelming and it can even be exhausting. Don't think of this EP as three separate songs, but as one creation. The songs meld together and are united with sticky sludge, clearly they all belong together.

'We Are Nothing' starts with "Lung Remover." Yes, the song title is a rather appropriate one, as this song is bleak and full of despair. Feedback drones on in every corner of this track as the amplifiers scream in anguish. Morose and melancholic doom slushes forward. The vocals are miserable and disconsolate, they make me feel as if my chest is splitting open. The absolute heaviness of the instrumentals combined with the shrieks from vocalist Ollijuhani Kujansivu create an enormous tension, until towards the end of the song when things change focus to a breakdown full of monster riffs that would make Cough proud.

We Are Nothing by Gangrened

The following track is "Them" and they switch it up by going from somber and grave to pure sludge. Taking serious notes from Eyehategod, Gangrened unleash a torrent of heavy doom riffs along with a tribal percussion to create something heavy and unique. This track has some serious groove and even at eight-and-a-half minutes, it continues to stay memorable.

'We Are Nothing' closes out with "Kontti," which unexpectedly is a kinda cover of "Six Pack" by Black Flag. This track should be a general fan favorite. It's something most people are familiar with and Gangrened do a fantastic job putting their own personal stoner spin on it. A fun listen and a great way to end the EP.

Gangrened have done a great job with this EP by giving us a small glimpse of the heavy sludge they can produce. The EP isn't perfect and my main complaint would be that it gets exhausting, especially in the first track however this is just a minor setback as I still find 'We Are Nothing' very enjoyable. This three track EP is ideal, and those looking for a great new band will be pleased with being able to spend twenty five minutes to seek out some killer sludge. Gangrened is now a band on my radar and I'll be definitely looking forward to new material in the future!

For Fans Of: Cough and Fistula. Order it in multiple formats here.

[wallowingindarkness]

Gangrened – The One That Leads The Way

[fragilism]

♔ windows of fate} ;; (closed.)

Six years.

It had been six years to this date that  he had watched the silhouette of one dark-haired rat fade into the distance. Six years had passed since the red strings of fate that had bound both himself and the other untangled and traveled off in opposite directions, since years since their goodbye. 

Had it truly been a goodbye? The silver-haired man could remember the words of the other clearly. They blew through his mind, his voice as clear and absolute as the promise he had made. "Reunion will come," Nezumi had said, and sealed the vow with a kiss, stringing his fingers through the open spaces between his own, closing the distance between them and easing the nervous ache in his heart. "That is a vow, Shion."

Yet Nezumi was the wind. As quickly as he had blown into Shion's life, he was gone, a speck on the horizon, the only evidence of his stay in the West Block residing in that underground room, in the memories they had shared. Shion had known this, somehow, from the moment his eyes had met with Nezumi's own pair of stormy grey, known that the moment they had been reunited, that at some point, the wind would call for his fated again.

He was wild and beautiful, refreshing and pure. He was everything that Shion was not, and everything that completed him. While Shion knew he would never truly reach the depths of those steely eyes, that he would never truly and fully know the entirety of Nezumi, he could not help but be drawn in.

And he could not help but still think of him, even to this day, the tenth anniversary of the day their fates had collided.

The day he had first been entranced by Nezumi's quicksilver gaze.

The sun was setting on this day, sending tinsels of reds and golds cascading upon the land, the last beams of light before the inky darkness of night would swallow the world whole, completing the routine of one full day. The light danced upon every surface it could touch, reflecting softly in broken tones off of Shion's own translucent hair, fighting valiantly to win against the shadows that were overtaking the room. 

He closed his eyes once, holding them shut, and gazed upon the face of the man whom had become his inspiration upon the backs of his eyelids. When he opened them again, the image was still burned into his retinas. He smiled, softly, contemplating for the umpteenth time the adventures he had shared with this man. With this seemingly nameless rat.

Shion let out a bemused hum, resting his arm lightly upon the windowsill that he sat at, working with the latch with his free hand, before throwing the set of paned glass open to take in the sunset for himself. The calm today was nothing like the typhoon ten years ago, on that night. It had seemed to symbolize the turbulence that the two boys had been thrown into upon locking gazes.

So perhaps, just perhaps, this sky, with clouds painted in soft violets and vibrant reds, was a symbol of not chaos, but peace. 

Yes, Shion had come to peace with Nezumi's absence.

Or so he had thought. 

His gaze traveled to the open window. No, that fact was not true. It was an empty ceremony of Shion's, on nights like these, to leave the window open in hopes of calling out to the one he most wanted to see, a bright blinking beacon screaming, "I am here, Nezumi! I am here and trying so hard to live up to your expectations of me! Now come back to me, come back through my window just like you did on that day."

Yes, if only that call would ever be heeded.