Gurkkhas are a French death metal band, named after units of Nepalese soldiers in the service of the British Army and the Indian armed forces, who released two albums around the turn of the millennium (more about the current and earlier band history in the interview with the band, read here). The debut album “Engraved in Blood, Flesh and Souls” was released in 2000 by Massacre Records, and just one year later “A life of suffering” was published by the legendary German label Morbid Records, which has long since ceased to exist. Now, out of nowhere, a compilation of the two albums is being released on the French label Great Dane Records, or rather, the complete “A life of suffering” album plus four further selected tracks from the debut album. The artwork of the earlier “A life of suffering” album has been retained, only this time, in contrast to the earlier red coloring, it has been dipped in blue, which makes the work, reminiscent of the masterpieces of the 2014 deceased Swiss alien creator H.R. Giger, appear all the more threatening. These old tracks were remixed and provided with new drummming work. And what can I say, the 12 tracks, which have a total playing time of 54 minutes, are convincing all along the line and have definitely stood the test of time, don't sound outdated in any way and could also be current compositions. Gurkkhas were clearly influenced by US death metal bands, I'll throw names like Deicide, Vital Remains, Broken Hope, Suffocation or Morbid Angel into the ring. Gurkkhas convince most of all with a skillful mix of brutal, fast death metal parts, which often alternate with grooving mid-tempo parts and thus provide a certain degree of dynamics. Particularly noteworthy are also the good vocals, which skillfully manage the balancing act between growling and accentuated comprehensibility in a powerful way. In this respect, I can only give an unconditional recommendation for fans of the above-mentioned and similar bands, as well as for extreme metal listeners who can (re)discover a band that was already believed to be dead, away from the usual regions such as the USA, Scandinavia or parts of Central and Eastern Europe.
