Gökböri - "Erlik" (Hammer Müzik, 2017)

Band: Gökböri
Title: Erlik
Genre: Thrash Metal with Proto-Black Metal influences
Year: 17th February 2017
Time: 33 min
Rating: 65/100












Wow, it's the very first time that I review a disc sang in Turkish language! In fact, everything in this trio called Gökböri is Turkish, from their moniker (precisely, Gökböri, in according to Wikipedia, "was a leading emir and general of Sultan Saladin) to the line-up (also if their drummer Jesse Haff comes from USA) and from the label (Hammer Muzik, also a record store; it's owner Enis sent to me also the album here reviewed) that released their 2nd album "Erlik" to the lyrical themes faced by the band that concerns their mythology (for instance, Erlik is the god of Death and underworld for the Turkic myths). But you have also to consider that Gökböri are located in New York, USA. And what's about their sound?

Well, throughout the 8 songs of "Erlik", Gökböri plays a raw but not so fast thrash metal a little bit blackened not only by the raucous vocals à la T.G. Warrior of the singer Emre Balik (alternated sometimes with more epic and cleaner vocals) but also by some proto-black metal influences from Hellhammer/Celtic Frost (like in the riffing), also if, anyway, the thrash metal side is always predominant. In addition, Gökböri are quite keen on the (simple, in this case) melodies of the pure heavy metal, as you can clearly hear especially in the titletrack, that has also some rocking vibes and gang choruses. Strangely for a band of this kind, they don't give a good importance to the guitar solos, so these ones are present only in 4 songs but two of them are played by guests named L.F. Ersoy ("Çift Başlı Kartal") and...CHRISTOPHER AMOTT (YESSS, THAT Christopher Amott of Arch Enemy's fame!), that gives to the listeners a great virtuoso solo in "Yelbegenler Yüresi"!

Said that, I have to say that I prefer Gökböri when they play in a more straightforward and thrash way like in "Tamuya" (below you can watch its lyric video), "Yelbegenler Yüresi", "Karabasanlara Dönüş" and, especially, "Körmösler Görmezler" (the most violent and unstoppable song of the entire album). Instead, the most complex and lenghtier songs with more heavy metal influences (e.g. "Gökten Gelen Tuğ" or even the same titletrack) aren't so effective also because they often have no guitar solos while I think that these ones could be useful to create more intensity.

As it happens usually to me, I admit that I reviewed Gökböri because of the language used by them and their special lyrical themes very far from the Satanism and the classic issues in metal. Besides this curiosity, I found a good thrash metal band with proto-black and heavy touches for a final result not always effective since there are no particular peaks of genius throughout the album (but in "Ben, Ang" you can hear some shamanic vocals that gives to the track a bizarre atmosphere) while only few songs are characterized by a really good intensity. In brief, "Erlik" is recommended for who likes the exotic stuff!

Tracklist:

1 - Tamuya
2 - Yelbegenler Yüresi
3 - Karabasanlara Dönüş
4 - Gökten Gelen Tuğ
5 - Erlik
6 - Körmösler Görmezler
7 - Ben, Ang
8 - Çift Başlı Kartal

Line-up:

Emre Balık - vocals/guitars
Koray Önder - bass/vocals
Jesse Haff - drums

Guests:

Christopher Amott - guitar solo ("Yelbegenler Yüresi")
L.F. Ersoy -  guitar solo ("Çift Başlı Kartal")

FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/G%C3%B6kb%C3%B6ri/119304364824132
BandCamp: http://gokbori.bandcamp.com/
Homepage: http://www.gokbori.com/
Hammer Müzik: http://www.hammermuzik.com/