Band:	The Gorge
Album:	Mechanical Fiction
Style:	Math metal, Progressive metal, Sludge metal
Release date:	July 2023

01. Synapse Misfire
02. Remnants Of Grief
03. Presence
04. Beneath The Crust
05. A Decision Was Made
06. Earthly Decay
07. Mechanical Fiction
08. Wraith

Pelagic Records: they just don’t miss, do they? It feels like every time a potential year-ender album comes along from a band I don’t know, there’s a significant chance that they’ll be on the label; at the very least, that’s the case with Missouri prog-sludge virtuosos The Gorge.

The Gorge came to the attention of Pelagic’s founder Robin Staps after viewing a brief video of one of their performances when opening for Intronaut (who are very much within the same ballpark musically); this event happened in 2016, but Mechanical Fiction is their first release since then. Perhaps the sheer complexity underlying the album is the reason for this lengthy wait; the four musicians comprising The Gorge (this is bassist Chris Turnbaugh’s debut with the group, after replacing original bassist and current Baroness member Nick Jost) have backgrounds in jazz, and have day jobs as session musicians or music educators, according to the album’s Bandcamp blurb. That musical talent is on full display here, as The Gorge bring together mathcore complexity, Mastodon riffing, sludge/hardcore fire and Animals As Leaders-esque guitar virtuosity together within a prog-metal framework that sees that musical skill converted into captivating musical brilliance.

Mechanical Fiction is uncompromising in its complexity and its heaviness, but it never loses its way and descends into wankery. Yes, the mathy interplay between the tapping guitar lead and underlying rhythm in “Synaptic Misfire” isn’t easy to get one’s head around, but there’s nevertheless a compelling groove underpinning it, and a visceral sludge power to the growls and guitar tone. It helps that the riffs are pretty reliably fantastic; “Remnants Of Grief” in particular is a constant riff-fest of convoluted but compelling rhythms interchanging deliciously with one another. This song is also great at showing how the band can take the foot off the gas when needed; the midsection of this song is more atmospheric and moody, insidiously crawling under one’s skin before The Gorge eventually kick up the pace again with some gnarly riffs reminiscent of Leviathan-era Mastodon.

Mastodon are probably the easiest band to use as a reference point for Mechanical Fiction; plenty of Hinds-esque guitar licks weave their way into the songs here, but the riffing, in addition to inherently resembling the sound of earlier Mastodon, also hits the same balance of technicality and primal gratification that the Atlanta titans nailed so well on their 2000s albums. This is arguably best demonstrated on “Presence”, which has hyperspeed guitar riffing (think the verses of “Oblivion”, but faster), tasty guitar noodling, and a proper headbanger of a closing riff.

This review is in danger of turning into a song-by-song description, which is awfully tempting, since pretty much every track has something worth highlighting. Still, if any songs in particular stand out in some way or another, one can point to “A Decision Was Made”, which opens in playful math rock fashion (ignore the screaming) and subsequently evolves into an Intronaut song, juxtaposing the deceptively simple with the outright dizzying. One might also look at “Earthly Decay”, perhaps the most consistently measured cut here tempo-wise, and one that has a certain bluesiness to some of its swinging rhythms, albeit not to the chunky climactic riff. Also, if “Earthly Decay” is measured, “Wraith” is outright languid, but the slower speed allows The Gorge to dive deeper into their meaner sludge and post-metal influences, with a hard/soft/hard structure that feature a sumptuous build from a simple clean guitar motif via a sustained snare roll into a colossal final riff on the song and album, one that is both polyrhythmic and pounding.

Mechanical Fiction is undeniably up my street; the coalescence of complex instrumentation, elaborate groove and hook-laden heaviness was destined to win me over. Nevertheless, the song-by-song execution here is so strong that it could also win over those with less of an inherent affinity for this sound. It’s been a long time in the making, but Mechanical Fiction spent just the right amount of time in the oven, and their first outing on Pelagic Records is fully in keeping with the elite quality standards of the label.