Gigan are back in action.
Seven years after their previous release, Eric Hersemann (bass/keyboards/ theremin/otamatone), Nate Cotton (drums) and Jerry Kavouriaris (vocals, Elbow Deep, ex-They Die Screaming) are determined to continue their musical adventure. Their fifth album, Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus, is released by Willowtip Records.
The album kicks off with the transcendently long Trans-Dimensional Crossing of the Alta-Tenuis, which begins with a dissonant cosmic sound before gradually revealing all its violence and complexity beneath massive howls. The musicians never fail to place a dissonant harmonic or strike, as on this surprising break before Ultra-Violet Shimmer and Permeating Infra-sound follows in very similar conditions. The track seems more virulent, as evidenced by the modern, strident sounds that accompany the explosive rhythm, as well as the astonishing effects in the vocals, but Square Wave Subversion takes its place by revealing an equally aggressive, bubbling mix. Though richly layered, the riffs are formidable, as are those of Emerging Sects of Dagonic Acolytes, a ten-minute as surprising as unexpected creation, which begins and ends with controlled brutality, but is mainly composed of a long, disquieting passage of unsettling oppression. Katabatic Windswept Landscapes remains in a chaotic yet violent register, where the musicians’ abilities are put to the test over a moderate tempo, but which accelerates again with Erratic Pulsitivity and Horror, while offering ominous harmonics in the background. The track maintains its eerie dynamic until The Strange Harvest of the Baganoids takes off again in futuristic tones, accompanying the instrumental through to its most vivid flights, but also on some vocal parts. The track ends with the same explosiveness as it began, then opens the doors to Ominous Silhouettes Cast Across Gulfs of Time, where heaviness dominates, even as the accelerations make themselves felt, and the sound becomes more noisy and experimental, before the final eruption.
If you’re not afraid of extremely dense and complex tracks, Gigan is sure to please. Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus will delight fans of elaborate patterns and scare off neophytes.
80/100