‘Becoming something I never thought could exist, Evolving and transforming into beast, Becoming, Becoming pure hate, Demonic, A demonic invocation’ (Becoming)

The album’s title rather aptly sets the scene.  This is undoubtedly a bestial debut full-length from Perth’s Gaoled.  It is also undeniably hardcore, but hardcore that is savagely warped through a raft of darkly metallic influences.  The fierce buzzsaw riffage and absolutely scorching solos call back to the early 1990s’ heyday of European death metal, while the sludge-fuelled breakdowns and brutal blast beat eruptions harness the visceral attributes of power violence.

Gaol is, of course, the old-fashioned English term for jail, which operates on a couple of levels.  On the one hand, it is a nod to one of the band’s formative influences Boston’s Scapegoat, Gaoled having covered the track Jailed on their 2022 demo.  And on the other, it speaks to the psychological themes of mental imprisonment, both socially and personally constructed, explored by the malevolently roared, effects saturated vocals.

Squalls of sinister, industrial-tinged noise bind the tracks and only further fuel the suffocating atmosphere of unrelenting hopelessness and hard-earned bitterness.  The bleakly potent onslaught unfurls in myriad forms, from Thundercap’s bruising, cathartic climax to the utterly viscous fury of Waiting, and from the venomously crafted Tempt to the more bleakly expansive Voices.  The album closes on a crushing cover of Khanate by late noughties’ Sydney hardcore band, Taipan.  And it is all rounded off with stunning medieval styled cover art.  The beast has truly been unleashed.