Twin Cities Metal Invasion

Music | March 11th, 2015

By Paul Harvey Johnson

Metal bands King Goro and Ghost Hook both hail from the Twin Cities and will perform Saturday at The New Direction.

King Goro

I've had the delight of attending a handful of sweaty, booze-soaked basement shows to witness the three-piece assault that is King Goro. It is in that environment where this band thrives. One of the things that separates the group from a lot of other bands within the death metal and grindcore genre is its sense of humor and insatiable desire to party.

That's right, everybody. Metal can be fun. Who knew?

The band recently came forth with a digital release, "Konquerors of the Outworld," available at kinggoro.bandcamp.com.

This album is a great representation of King Goro. The lyrics directly reflect the members’ sense of humor with tracks such as "Slaughtermelon," "Wheez'n the Juice" (referring to the neon-green booze concoction they always arrive armed with) and, of course, the final track "Fatality," which pays homage to the character that is its namesake.

King Goro's delivery is tight yet loose. Its sound tiptoes right on the edge of maximum velocity and losing control. Expect to hear everything from dissonant guitar riffs that claw at your eardrums to frenzied blast beats and a dizzying three-way delivery of larynx-shredding vocals that range from guttural growls to "top of the lung" type screeching.

Ghost Hook

In addition to its upcoming Fargo show, Ghost Hook is gearing up to release a new album entitled "Casual Thoughts of Homicide" coinciding with its CD release party on April 18 at Club Underground in Minneapolis.

As a long-running institution of the "Twin Towns" scene, Ghost Hook has spent its time sharpening its sonic blades into a deadly array of death/grind.

Ghost Hook's music is truly the soundtrack to your nightmare. The vocal delivery is equal parts precise, rapid-fire and demonic. Their lyrical content covers horror-esque subjects, demonstrated on tracks such as "I Like It When You Play Dead" and "Stuffed in a Trunk." The flip side is that vocalist Alex Gorgos seems to also offer some sort of dark philosophy with tracks such as "Humanity Ignored" and "Bred for Slaughter."

The rest of the band covers a lot of ground musically. The drumming stays mostly in the blasting/machine gun double kick territory, yet slamming into the occasional groove to further the impact on the listener.

The guitars on this album range from brutal pounding power chords reminiscent of the early ‘90s Florida death metal movement, to unhinged, tripped out, nightmarish sections that will eat holes in your psyche (listen to the track “Anti-theist” and you'll know what I mean).

In summation, therein lies the beauty of the extreme metal genre. You can have two bands that walk similar paths musically, but at the same time they are almost polar opposites.

Rounding out the bill will be Gorgatron, Sleep Signals and Feral Teens.