Review by Norbert on January 30, 2026.

In December 2017, I went to the Eindhoven Metal Meeting festival with a friend. My friend was a great guy, albeit German, which is an achievement in itself. He had impeccable taste: death metal, prog rock, and beer, preferably in quantities that begin to blur the lines between them. That edition of the festival was truly a success – a ton of good shows, everything sounded perfect. The drinks too. However, what really brought us together was the performance that ended before 4 a.m., as part of the festival afterparty. Gorefunest took the stage at the Dynamo club and – yes, yes – played a set composed entirely of Gorefest covers. The fact that it was happening not far from the place where, during Dynamo Open Air, Gorefest recorded their live album "The Eindhoven Insanity" in 1993 added to the spice. History has come in a full, dirty circle.

Ever since that night, I've had a definite soft spot for bands whose names begin with "Gore"—partly out of sentimentality, partly out of spite. It's no surprise, then, that sooner or later I had to stumble upon Gorekaust from Riihimäki, Finland. This band is still very young—the average age in the band hovers around twenty—when their debut EP, "Putrefied Icon," was released in 2021, leader Jami was only 17. This material, along with the full-length album "Ancient Halls Of Emptiness," released a year later, positioned Gorekaust clearly on the side of classic Finnish death metal. There were more direct references to the local scene, a sepulchral atmosphere, and the spirit of the '90s, with that characteristic coldness and sense of hopelessness ingrained in their local DNA.

Their second album, "Fleshcross," released last year, marks a distinct departure. It's still cold and grimy, but this time, Gorekaust depart from Finnish orthodoxy and veers towards the American favorites of Autopsy – a slimier, more decaying death metal that doesn't so much freeze as rot. This album smells like old meat left out in the cold somewhere in the middle of a Finnish forest – seemingly frozen, but the process of decomposition continues. There are no technical flourishes or psychedelic twists; instead, there are riffs as heavy as earth being dropped over a coffin, a bass rumbling like footsteps in an abandoned chapel, and drums that don't propel you forward, but methodically draw you deeper and deeper.

Though throughout this decomposition, there are some surprisingly… catchy moments. “Fleshcross” can be downright groovy at times, almost anthemic in its rotten sense, best exemplified by the impressive 'Frolicking In The Maggot-Infested Intestinal Cavities Of An Unholy Abomination Somehow Constructed From Leftover Human Remains' (yes, that’s really the title of a single track). Gorekaust manages to nail a rhythm here that burrows into your head, making you nod against your better judgment, before dragging the listener back into the swamp.

The whole thing is shrouded in a Finnish coldness devoid of any romanticism. The vocals are another layer of decay, the filthy breath of something that should have been dead long ago. And again, it's hard to believe that these sounds are being created by people barely in their twenties, because "Fleshcross" sounds like an album recorded by someone who spent half their life in a cemetery or in a basement beneath a mortuary. This is death metal played out of necessity, conviction, from a heart caked with mud, not dictated by a trend calculator.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10