The four main tracks are all over ten minutes in length; and all have a similar tone and construction to them. Sprawling, drone-like structures; for the most part comprising lo-fi noise, vocals and synth squeals and drones over a buried skeleton of guitar or organ. The general sound is very grubby, trashy even and in this context very little of the synth parts work for me. Often processed through delays, they sound too clean in this company; they detract from the grimy atmosphere. The same could be said of the generally conspicuous use of effects, which again distracts my ear from the more “sombre” heart of Gorgontongue’s sound. Several elements seem to be needlessly put through phasers, delays and general modulations. The beginning of “Where Grass Refuses To Grow” has a guitar sound straight from the psychedelic ‘60s, and I don’t think it adds anything, it just confuses (though saying that, maybe the best passage of the album is the end of this track, with its wandering, psychey, slide guitar.)  The point being that the decayed, rotting atmosphere which Gorgontongue are so close to achieving, could be better served by the naked sound of an acoustic guitar - in my opinion.

For all the length and droning, there is little space, or breathing room; but at the same time, Gorgontongue don’t achieve a sense of claustrophobia. There’s enough agitation and activity to stop the pieces from being atmospheric, melancholic and mesmeric; but not enough agitation to make things any kind of assault: it feels very much stuck between two possibilities, to me. It is undoubtedly a noisy album, but this is mainly due to the lo-fi recording and production; which does create a nicely trashed feel. In fact, the whole thing has an “unrefined” character in general, even with a few ham-fisted playing choices too - but its no Abruptum. The sound leans towards a distressed trebly-ness, but some bass is provided on interlude “II” with its thick, doomy guitar drone (again, somewhat needlessly put through chorus or something) and some quite bludgeoning bass from a recording of the wind on “”When Hell Glutted On Humanity”. The Black Metal-esque vocals are very distressed indeed, saturated to the point of sounding crackly and gurgling; they’re used quite sparingly throughout “The Lighter Side Of A Suicidal Mind”, and joined by lots of unidentifiable vocal samples.

I’m not greatly enamoured of this album, but I do think there’s a good album hidden inside. Gorgontongue have all the necessary materials and tools here, but I just think they should pare their sound back and let it breathe more. If they built their tracks from layers of noise and their very effective organ lines, whilst also incorporating some of their feedback tones, junk recordings and whispering vocals; I really think they could create something truly great. Certainly some of the organ parts and junk/field recordings create a tension that the other elements struggle to maintain. The last track, “The Children Of Their Gods Writhe At My Feet”, ends with one of these recordings, and its genuinely eerie, mysterious and unsettling - the kind of thing that Gorgontongue are very capable of achieving with future releases.