Old School Death Metal That Only Sounds Interesting on Paper - A Review of Gokseong's Whispers from the Haunted Shadows

Gokseong sounds quite interesting on paper: a South-Korean death and thrash metal band focusing on lyrics based upon Korean horror tales. A closer look however reveals that the initiative premise is a lot less intriguing than it seems to be. The duo plays old school death metal rather than incorporating different genres to offer a memorable genre combination. The two musicians actually hail from Sweden and the United States of America as no Korean musician is even involved. The lyrics seem to be inspired by Asian horror movies such as A Tale of Two Sisters instead of profoundly exploring Korean folklore. Some lyrics even reference Japanese horror tales such as Kuchisake-Onna and have nothing to do with Korean culture at all.

With these elements out of the way, is Gokseong's Whispers from the Haunted Shadows at least a great death metal record? To be honest, it's an unimpressively average release inspired by but never equaling Swedish death metal of the early nineties such as At the Gates that should appeal to dedicated genre fans but doesn't need any attention from anyone else. The guitar riffs are heavy but often repetitive. The bass guitar sound is rather sharp and technical. The use of keyboards and samples provides a little bit of atmosphere every now and then but isn't fleshed out to its full promising potential. The vocals are the usual grunts that sound like the performances of hundreds of thousands of other singers. The same can be stated about the rough garage demo that provides at least some sincere genre authenticity.

Despite several spins however, none of the material presented on Gokseong's Whispers from the Haunted Shadows stands out in any significant way. The twelve songs offered on this debut album entertain for fifty-seven minutes but won't inspire most listeners to give this entire release or even a few tunes on it multiple spins. The duo thus fails to live up to its intriguing concept that might set it apart from other genre groups. My sincere recommendation would be to watch some great Asian horror movies such as A Tale of Two Sisters instead and ignore this particular album unless you are a most dedicated old school death metal aficionado.