Gorefest – False

Label – Nuclear Blast

Year Of Release – 1992

While Mindloss wasn’t a bad album it was not at the same time anything great. Founding members Jan-Chris De Koeyer(vox and bass) and Frank Harthoorn (guitars) got rid of the drummer and second guitarist and hired replacements in the form of drummer Ed Warby and guitarist Boudewijn Bonebakker. The resulting songs would see the band signed on to Nuclear Blast and False was released in 1992.

Right from the onset of the album it’s pretty clear that things have changed. The level of musicianship improved considerably and the songs became a bit more melodic.

The album starts off with “The Glorious Dead” which is an awesome opener. Alternating between death metal and moodier mid paced sections, Gorefest had found a pacing and groove that worked. Still unashamedly death metal, “False” is fucking kickass. Stand out tracks include the superb “Reality – When You Die” which incorporates classic heavy

metal, melodic guitar parts and a chugging thrash riff that would have made Machine Head proud, all within an orthodox death metal framework. Title song “False” is another super song on the album where the whole band just nail down a heavy death metal groove and kill it.

There are some similarities in the voices of Jan-Chris De Koeyer and LG Petrov of Entombed, but the music itself had by this time managed to steer clear of their peers. Gorefest were at this time, slowly but surely carving out a place for themselves in the European underground.

While the debut, “Mindloss” was not an essential release, Gorefest upped the ante with “False” and this is an album that should be slotted up there along with Entombed’s Clandestine and Dismember’s Like An Everflowing Stream.