You want a dynamic progressive death metal band? Gourmand brings that, and much more on their second album “Blossoming From The Grave”.  Drawing heavy influence from more than extreme music, they blend in folk and classical influences periodically throughout the album.  Luke is the band’s vocalist who has a classical background that was influenced through his parents (you can read more about the band in my recent interview).  Don’t let his stellar cello playing overshadow his voice…..it made me smile ear to ear the consistent growling like Sven from Aborted actually fronted Gourmand. It was a great surprise after I finished listening to the album when I got the promotion in my e-mail.  Definitely a band you don’t want to sleep on.

Bands like Gourmand are very rare these days, as lots of death metal bands don’t really like to experiment or try something different.  Granted, I love the genre but there’s plenty of proof I really like the different experimenting going on within the genre.  Like any other genre, you can only keep rehashing the same music for only so long.  Many bands are adding progressive and experimental elements that aren’t predominately found in death metal (odd time signatures, extra instrumentation, etc).  Opeth and Ne Obliviscaris are two big bands in the genre that have and still are facilitating this movement.  I think Gourmand has that potential if they keep their heads down and stay on the musical grind.

Blossoming From The Grave is a well written album that will probably be ignored being a small band and not a trendsetter.  Gourmand is an artistic band who isn’t looking to be popular and sign a huge record deal.  The future is bright for the band and I think it’d be foolish to ignore these guys.  You can tell the difference in their two albums that their new release is real collaborative and thats how a band should truly function.  Don’t let this up and coming band slip through the cracks!