Review SCOUR “Gold”

Phil Anselmo is currently on tour with Pantera while the next project is in the works. Scour is the extreme metal outlet, including Anselmo, with a founding date back in 2015. After releasing their first EP “Grey”, Scour underwent a line-up change with Adam Jarvis and Mark Kloeppel joining the group.

Over the years, Scour has stuck to the color scheme when it comes to naming their releases. After “Grey” came “Red”, followed by “Black”. Now, “Gold” is the new black, meaning that the five-piece is releasing a full-length debut album.

As you might expect, “Gold” is a fusion of various influences, resulting in a metal blast that starts with the blackened opener “Cross”. Anselmo’s hoarse screams and evil growls create a field of tension between black metal and death metal, while it is the frantic tempo that connects the poles.

No foot on the brake is also the approach of “Blades” and the following “Infusorium”. Driven by a blackened soul, the aggressive sound of these first three tracks sets the tone for an album that also contains interesting interludes. “Ornaments” is one of them. A chiming bell and the dark winds of doom is what reaches the listener’s ears before the doomy “Coin” kicks in.

“Evil” comes with a merciless tempo that is the foundation for most of the tracks. Some more groovy elements are woven into “Devil” without ruining the basic raw principles of this release.

“Contaminated” is the next interlude. Samples create a dystopian vibe that leads you into the raging “Hell”. Diabolic is the way we can describe “Invoke”. The song is a bit slower than most of the other tracks and relies more on a grooving spirit.

“Gold” is really heavy. It is a raw and unpolished piece of music that opens the gates to the abyss. It is a tight and evil album, an unpolished musical gem that shimmers in black. It is the mixture of death metal, grindcore and punk presented with a blackened soul that makes “Gold” a shining and confronting release that surprises from start to finish.