You will probably agree that most of today’s (Death) Metal bands are not really ground-breaking and if they are they probably suck. Well, GALLERY OF DARKNESS bass player Torsten recently joined this East Friesian bunch called GOREZONE as well and gave me this CD the band recorded last year before he joined forces with them. My first impression is that this stuff is created to be played live: it’s got groove, it’s got speed and it definitely rocks. Some of the riffs don’t really develop the power the band seems to be capable of and I dare say some of them sound a bit like kindergarten to me (especially the title track) and the band sticks with them for too long. This image came across as well when I met them at the “Fuck The Commerce” Festival in Germany recently (no, they were not playing there). But to be honest: these impressions do not dominate “Erase The Scum” and especially song No. 6 kicks some serious arse. Besides the fact that you won’t find any “progressive” elements in here (not GOREZONE’s aim anyway), this CD is outstanding for one reason (besides the good production at Soundlodge (OBSCENITY, etc.)): with great passion GOREZONE integrated sound files from war movies (?) to Helge Schneider (sic!) cites skilfully and therefore make their new CD interesting indeed. Of course, a crazy band like GOREZONE needs to have a hidden track (I HATE that), so the CD is only approx. 31 minutes long. I’d really like to see these sickos live but unfortunately their next gig in Oldenburg won’t work out for me (check the tourdates). In case you’re interested in underground Death Metal, GOREZONE is a good address for you and if you speak German you might understand those sound effects better, but you don’t have to in order to like “Erase…” Check out their website: www.gore-zone.de