Gorod

The sophomore effort from France’s Gorod is a considerable departure from last year’s debut, but this isn’t to say their trademark shredding is completely absent. Instead of seemingly random flights into aimless noodling, they’ve assimilated their fret board arsenal into a battalion of crushing songs, developing a keenness for varied exploration. They move through a variety of different styles making the songs more distinguishable than before. Incorporating Cephalic Carnage riffing while trying out almost nu-metal grooves, they haven’t lost any of the head banging command that made Neurotripsicks so catchy but there are certain downfalls to this shift in this direction. It seems songwriting has improved at the expense of style; there are many stock riffs that fail to ignite any sense of excitement, leaving you wondering why they’d forsake their captivating individuality for mildly generic rock tunes. Rest assured, this record is better than 95 percent of the stuff out there, it’s just not better than their last.