One and Done? Pt. 13: Gorement

I have never seen a less-than-perfect score in a review for Gorement's The Ending Quest.  Given my attempts from a few weeks ago to uncover hidden gems of the Swedish death metal scene, I had to give this one a shot.  This is Gorement's only full-length release.  They changed their name to the significantly less interesting Pipers Dawn in the mid 90's, but never released more than a single demo under that name. 

Gorement is kind of different for a Swedish death metal band.  They do not play the same kind of typical buzzsaw punk-inflected riff style.  Rather, Gorement shows significant doom metal influences, bearing more similarity to groups like Autopsy and Asphyx than to Entombed and Dismember.  The result is an extremely dark and gloomy atmosphere that is at least as impressive as anything their countrymen have ever released.  There are moments where there are gothic metal elements similar to Paradise Lost as well.

Gorement appears to have just missed the boat when they released this album.  By 1994, most of the Swedish death metal landmark albums had already been released and the attention had shifted to Norwegian black metal.  They were just a couple of years late.  Most of the big Swedish death metal bands were entering into the second phases of their careers and were declining in quality.  This is the status of the scene into which Gorement released their sole album.

It is a shame that this album has been mostly relegated to obscurity.  It is a terrific album that pulls together influences from Swedish death metal, doom metal and gothic/death metal.  The Ending Quest should be a classic.  Instead it is a hidden gem.