Testament and Death seem to be favourites of the guys in Gross
Misconduct as they fall into that particular thrash category.
Proficiency fully in check, these Canucks play as though it was the
last supper. Song construction, technical prowess and overall skull
bludgeoning - here's a band that's ready to take it to the next level.
The actual recording hampers the genius beneath; Tue Madsen could work
wonders with this material. Before the disc has ended, the urge to
experience it live is insatiable. Going straight for the jugular, with
lyrics that actually say something, GM pound, pulverize and rattle like
few other unsigned bands. Keep an eye and ear on these killers. 8/10
---- Bravewords and Bloody Knuckles, April 2008
While the lame-for-what-they-do name might spark some M.O.D. or
Murphy's Law bong-mosh ideas, this Canadian killer is far elsewhere,
noodling there asses through a modern tech-thrash web of wickedness.
Modernized invigoration flows through classic tech-death prowess, and
each song on The Process Of Indoctrination lifts a few hints from
Death, Megadeth and Gorguts, rocketing them into today's "anything
goes" world of genre-crossing with total class, talent and an obvious
physiological bond with their metal heroes. Fans of brethren tech-fucks
Neuraxis, Gorod, Martyr and the mentioned acts could get gnarly with
these tangled but cohesive equations. Supposedly they butcher onstage;
I'll have to prove that to my own ass someday. The disk was a pleasure
to tackle.
--- Metal Maniacs, January 2008.
The members of Gross Misconduct are veterans of two now-defunct Nanaimo-based skate/punk-metal bands, but they've moved far beyond aping Suicidal Tendencies. This is a proficient, technical, death-metal quartet whose Vancouver-based music has more in common with '80s Metallica, late-period Death, and contemporary underground acts like Nevermore and Martyr.On The Process of Indoctrination, drummer John Kurucz physicalizes the rage of his anticonformist lyrics at around 200 beats per minute on riff-driven tracks like "The War Breeds On" and "The Humbler". The choice cut here is "Driven Fanatic", where a monstrously menacing introductory lick presages the dinosaur bludgeoning that comes midway through. David London's thick-throated vocals are satisfyingly intelligible, and, along with fellow axeman Jesse Brint, he delivers distorted volleys of rage and pinch harmonics. Next time out, an even fatter four-string sound from bassist-engineer Ryan Shepard would be appreciated. Otherwise, given a little refinement, Gross Misconduct could conceivably play junior-hockey arenas someday with its savagely complex sonic attack.
---- The Georgia Straight. August 16, 2007
Today's music scene, local and otherwise, is overrun by bands that could literally be mistaken for one another. It is no less frequent that one will go to a show and see three or four separate bands giving the same performance with a more than similar sound. Just when the search for something new seemed hopeless, enter Gross Misconduct. This group of Nanaimo natives came into the scene over ten years ago, and have just started to make some major waves in the local scene. Influenced by such acts as Slayer, Sepultura, Pantara and Death, their sound is new and refreshing, yet still hints at their metal roots. They are sure to shut up all the jabbering twits at the bar with their commanding entrance. At Warped Tour '07, they began their set with maybe 30 people in front of them, but by the end had pulled in at least double that. Kids clad in metal shirts came running from every direction, streaming down the hill beside the stage, pushing everything that was in their way to get to the band. The first row of head-bangers were thrashing so marvelously in-sync with the incessant blast-beats that they were literally rocking the barricade in front of the stage back and forth so hard, it early snapped free from its platform. Such a response from a crowd that has not heard of the band they are egging on is almost unheard of. One thing is for sure, Gross Misconduct are just getting started. They recently completed their first full-length album, The Process of Indoctrination. It's heavy hitting, grabbing you from the very beginning of the first track and not releasing you until the very last moment. Since they hadn't done much recording before, it was a huge learning experience. The result is a solid album that they'll be proud of throughout their career. In their years together, the band has gone through several line-up changes, a move from their home town to the city and countless shows in bars that a lot of people wouldn't set foot in. All the boys need now is a good tour to kick everyone into gear. You can check Gross Misconduct out at www.myspace.com/grossmisconductmetal, or at the Cobalt on September 8. Be sure to pick up a copy of their album, you won't regret it.
----- Discorder Magazine, September 2007.
Three years of the Nerve has seriously eroded my metal fortitude with impurities like 'country & western', 'musical exploration', 'Adrian Mack', and 'the '70s'. So it's been a while since checking in with Gross Misconduct. What started as an ode to Death (the band) with all the angular, temposmashing, disjointed mayhem that was Chuck Schuldiner's specialty, Gross Misconduct has smoothed slightly, adding a teaspoon more melody and chug-a-chug grooviness to the technical metronome perfection and aural terror. Musicianship is uniformly tremendous, with brain-swelling, death-thrash riffs, John Kurucz's outrageous 10-tempos-a-second drum acrobatics, and constructively epic deedle-deedle-woAAAAH guitar solos. Can't say much for the lyrics - typical pessimistic male anger and societal ills - but who really cares? It's as metal as it gets, from the title, to the artwork, to the tough-guy band photo and a song called "Abaddon". For a lil' band from Vancouver, Gross Misconduct absolutely holds its own against biggies like the Crown, Nightrage, Dimension Zero, and Kataklysm. So fuck yeh, put on your thrashin' horns.
---- The Nerve Magazine, June 2007.
Current metal bands heavily influenced by classic metal are in no way uncommon these days. While the debut album by Vancouver based Gross Misconduct most certainly revels in its influences, it also effortlessly manages to craft a sound of their own. You cannot go wrong when early Metallica, Pantera, Slayer, At The Gates and Mastodon are said influences and what results is a menacingly raw, blistering offering. On display here are 7 cuts (sic) of pure metal, complete with impressive musicianship and meaty riffage.Lead off shredder "The War Breeds On" gives a sense of what the listener is in for with spiralling guitars, lightening fast drumming and satisfyingly harsh vocals, which can be likened to those of Mastodon's Troy Saunders (sic). The standouts here are "The Humbler" which comes across as a thrashier "Far Beyond Driven" era Pantera or "Burn My Eyes" era Machine Head and Driven Fanatic with its pulsating double bass, stop start guitars and killer call and answer vocals.Gross Misconduct is a local band worth supporting, especially for fans of underground 80s thrash. Here's looking forward to what Gross Misconduct will produce next. This is a great debut album!
---Abort Magazine
Coming out of Vancouver comes the musically inclined Gross Misconduct. I saw these guys open up for Martyr/Neuraxis back in May of this year, and needless to say it was a great introduction to this band. Their live show was impressive, but now that I have the disc, I can easily say how solid this band is coupled with the initial reaction of their live performance. Gross Misconduct plays a style of death metal that is full of good thrash riffs, and intelligently modeled phrasing. Oddly enough, the first Martyr album is fairly comparable to this album, in a sense that it's not as wacky as some technical bands out there today. Even more ironic that the melodies in this band sound very Neruaxis-esque. It's certainly a winning combination. One will notice right away that the musicianship in this band is incredibly tight. Each member plays with precision and accuracy. For most of the album, we get a good thrashy riff that the band will play with. The riff will open up in a way that sounds almost predictable, but then twists to something more obscure, whether it be a strange shift in melody or just some overall crushing metal goodness. This band certainly keeps the listener on edge doing so. As each riff develops, the band will play off of it with overlaying melodies and variations, then fall into a counterpoint. Blast beats will pummel the listener, or alternatively, spaced out breaks take place. Either way, the band does it in an intelligent matter that doesn't get boring. One thing that makes this album stand out quite well is the vocal approach. It's not typical death metal vocals... it's a much more raspy kind of yell, which works very well with their style. Perhaps comparable to Meshuggah crossed with Martyr in that department. The only part of this album that can get a bit tedious is a few of the melodic riffs do get to be a bit boring. However, the amount of good riffage and structures counters this greatly. Of course, this is the band's first offering and I feel that the potential displayed here is going to explode. For a debut album, this is some really awesome stuff. Support this band especially if you're into this style of music. Aside from playing well and writing good material, they have been quite friendly towards myself and other individuals, which is certainly more than reason enough to check them out.
---- metal-archives.com contributor, "Orphy" -- September 2007
The Process Of Indoctrination' is quite a fine debut album. This band's style of melodic yet aggressive death/thrash draws influences from sources as varied as Kreator, Cephalic Carnage, Vader, and a myriad of other artists. The package is cohesive yet varied, and possesses a great deal of technicality as well as a very solid grasp of songwriting. Already the band is extremely professional, with top-notch production and playing present on this CD, and the delivery of the music as a whole is very compelling and strong throughout. Riffing alternates between more complex, somewhat melodic lead work and straightforward, buzzsaw thrash riffing, and that alternation is used very effectively, with unexpected turns between complexity and simplicity entering at perfect intervals and short, frantic solos bursting out from nowhere. Stop/start rhythms intersect with longer streams of notes, adding yet another layer of complexity to the music, though they are never employed in a metalcore or Meshuggah-esque fashion. The drumming is similarly complex and fill-laden, with a powerful style of playing and a good level of speed and technicality adding yet more to the music. Vocals, though somewhat buried by the guitar-heavy production, are quality, if probably the most standard of the elements here: they're a shouting growl that does the job well, but doesn't really stand out, nor should it. Though the band does get quite melodic at times, most obviously on 'Abhorrence', they never get cloying, even though many of the melodies employed are Gothenburg-based in nature. The lengthier nature of the tracks on this LP give the music a bit more room to progress and breathe. Each track moves through a sequential set of ideas without ever dawdling around or doing nothing. At the same time, the band never feels the need to get everything out of the way too quickly; while the idea of death/thrash metal does imply a sort of barreling aggression and absolute dedication to all things straightforward and linear, Gross Misconduct is a great deal more thoughtful and musically complex than you would expect at first glance. The album is very multidimensional and none of the songs are overly simple; it is a release that can be listened to time and time again, with each new listen revealing yet more elements of the music previously unnoticed. This is a very well-rounded LP, and all its flaws are mostly a matter of degree; it's not the best album ever made. It's merely very good. It doesn't shine your shoes or perform fellatio on you either, though the latter could be approximated using the hole in the center of the disc it comes on. But anyway, 'The Process Of Indoctrination is a very good debut from a very promising band, and I'm looking forward to yet more high quality music from them in the future.
---- metal-archives.com contributor "Noktorn," October 2007.
Another great newcomer from the technical metal scene in Canada. The band's style recalls late period Death and the Polish Sceptic, but is more aggressive and more thrashy, with frequent adherence to blast beats where shades of Suffocation could clearly be heard, and by no means less technical. Chuck Schuldiner (R.I.P.) is an obvious influence on the guitarists, so expect some great leads and mighty technical riffage; by far one of the finest debuts of 2007.
---- www.thethrashmetalguide.com
I am the first to admit that I am not a metal head, but I do know good, technically sound music when I hear it. Gross Misconduct just gets better and better over the years. The remind me of what I liked about metal back when I was in high school, and yet they manage to not be dated. Gross Misconduct hit hard, fast and with great skill. No screwing around.
---- Absolute Underground, Issue 16.
This local quartet plays it fast, tight and -- duh -- loud with the kind of exact staccato chops fans expect of a thrash/death act citing Cryptopsy and Mastodon as influences. David London's crisp, clear vocals are a real plus here. The drummer is intense.
---- The Province Newspaper. Dec. 18, 2007
*** IN ITALIAN ***
Come ennesima testimonianza dell'incredibile stato di salute della scena estrema canadese ecco arrivare al traguardo del primo album da studio i Gross Misconduct, quartetto di Vancouver incredibilmente agguerrito e di gran classe.
Stupisce, visto l'incredibile qualità della proposta musicale, che il combo canadese abbia dovuto autoprodurre il proprio esordio, quando numerose label del loro Paese hanno sempre messo in luce una capacità nello scovare nuovi talenti invidiabile; misteri della produzione/distribuzione che non possono essere conosciuti, ma sono sicuro che dopo aver ascoltato questo "The Process of Indoctrination" gli addetti al settore correranno immediatamente ai ripari e cercheranno di mettere sotto contratto la band.
Gross Misconduct ci propongono un techno death/thrash ottimamente composto e suonato in maniera egregia, senza disdegnare ariosi passaggi melodici quasi di scuola svedese ma mantenendo sempre e comunque un approccio potente e violento alla proposta musicale: nel sound del quartetto canadese troveremo influenze Death (da "Human" in poi), Testament (nei passaggi più thrash) e persino qualcosa degli In Flames nei fraseggi chitarristici più catchy, ma fortunatamente non si tratta di un semplice copia/incolla dei vari stili dei gruppi. La band guidata dal bravo ed eclettico David London riesce infatti a mescolare le proprie influenze in maniera intelligente ed accattivante, dimostrando buona personalità ed inventiva unite ad una tecnica sorprendente ma mai fine a sé stessa.
Il riffing alterna sfuriate ultratecniche di chiara matrice Schuldineriana a passaggi più monolitici ed immediati, per poi andare a rifugiarsi in soluzioni più melodiche in concomitanza con i canti di chitarra ed assoli eseguiti sempre con gran gusto, mentre la sezione ritmica sorregge le composizioni con una performance impeccabile da parte del drummer John Kurucz ed il bassista Ryan Shepard. Dietro al microfonoTrociamo il chitarrista David London, aiutato dall'altro Axe-Man Jesse Brint, in grado di passare da un growl mai troppo profondo ma perfetto per la proposta musicale ad un timbo più sporco nei momenti più thrashy.
Le composizioni sono tutte di buona fattura: i cambi di tempo ed i umore abbondano e questo permette all'ascoltatore di godersi appieno i 39 minuti che vanno a comporre "The Process of Indoctrination" e il riffing, tagliente e corposo allo stesso tempo, non perde mai occasione di lacerare i timpani all'ignaro deathter di turno.
L'album prende il via con le ottime "The War Breeds" (e qui risulterà impossibile non pensare ai Death degli ultimi quattro dischi), costituita da un riffing complesso ed intricato ma accattivante, e la più lunga e strutturata "Abhorrence", che nei suoi sette minuti di durata riesce a sciorinare un buon numero di cambi di ritmo e a mescolare arpeggi puliti con violentissime esplosioni di rabbia elettrica. La successiva "Abandon" non è comunque da meno con il suo lavoro di chitarra cesellato e compresso, mentre "The Humbler", con le sue incursioni di blast-beat, non potrà non scatenare un violentissimo headbanging in chi sta ascoltando il disco. La performance vocale in questo caso si avvicina a quella di Chuck Billy dei Testament, anche se la canzone non è prettamente thrash, bensì si tratta di una cavalcata death/thrash di pregevole fattura. "Driver Fanatic" fa ampio uso di diversi pattern ritmici, andando a parare anche su decelerazioni oscure ed opprimenti, mentre dopo l'intermezzo "Withered" si fa strada lungo i padiglioni auricolari del deathster la tostissima "Lifeless", diretta da una doppia cassa marziale ed un lavoro di chitarra serrato e preciso. La conclusione dell'album è rappresentata da "Indoctrination", brano che non raggiunge neanche i tre minuti di durata ma che in realtà, grazie ad un riffing fantastico, accelerazioni brucianti e cambi di tempo notevoli, si rivela come uno dei migliori episodi del disco.
Nonostante "The Process of Indoctrination" sia un album autoprodotto il risultato è comunque estremamente professionale: il suono è pulito e potente e non ha nulla da invidiare a quello di band ben più famose e riconosciute a livello mondiale.
Insomma, i Gross Misconduct, con il loro album d'esordio, hanno dimostrato di essere un gruppo di gran classe che ha tutte le carte in regola per togliersi grandi soddisfazioni nel futuro...
...e a noi non resta che supportarli già da ora... Voto : 80/100
----- www.empireofdeath.com
Arrivano dal Canada, per l'esattezza da Vancouver, e sono una delle realtà più interessanti, del panorama techno-death, che ho avuto il piacere di scoprire nell'ultimo periodo. Sono i Gross Misconduct, band che con The Process of Indoctrination giunge al primo full-lenght. A detta di chi scrive è tanto sorprendente quanto sconcertante constatare come i nostri approdino al debutto ufficiale non supportati da nessuna etichetta: elemento questo che in alcun modo riesce ad eclissare la stella sotto la quale sembra essere nato il platter.
Come anticipato, il quartetto ci propone un death metal dall'elevatissimo tasso tecnico, nel quale le mirabolanti capacità esecutive trovano il giusto punto di incontro con una verve compositiva fuori dal comune per una band agli esordi. Infatti piuttosto che ripercorrere per filo e per segno gli insegnamenti dei grandi maestri (Death e Atheist ... ma era proprio il caso di dirlo?!?!), oppure plagiare le fortune della fiorente scuola canadese (Gorguts , Martyr, Cryptopsy, giusto per citare i nomi più rappresentativi) i nostri riescono ad infondere nel genere diverse influenze unite ad una spiccata e vivace personalità. Per cui non solo esecuzioni monolitiche, spezzate da passaggi funambolici, ma piuttosto riffing ultratecnici di scuola thrash, di rado avvicendati da transiti melodici che strizzano l'occhio al sempre verde filone svedese. Nemmeno a dirlo luci puntate sulle doti dei musicisti: di una precisione chirurgica il drumming di John Kurucz, splendidamente accompagnato dal bassista Ryan Shepard, che pare avere in Di Giorgio il faro di riferimento. Ma in primo piano troviamo le due asce, affidate al duo David London e Jesse Brint, estremamente efficaci in ogni espressione, tanto nelle esecuzioni soliste quanto nei momenti più duri dal sapore thrashy. Le stesse eclettiche linee vocali, sempre partorite dalla coppia London/Brint, sposano la politica delle note, alternando timbri profondi a flessioni più acide ed aggressive. Provare per credere la splendida opener The War Breeds e la complessa successiva Abhorrence, così come tutta la track-list, fino a giungere alla conclusiva (fatta eccezione della bonus track Indoctrination) e micidiale Lifeless. A onor del vero nessuna novità in senso stretto, ma nel complesso una riuscita coesione che trova la propria dimensione a conferma sia dell'ottimo stato di salute della scena canadese, e soprattutto delle indiscutibili qualità dei Gross Misconduct.
Forse è presto per decretare sentenze, ma se amate il genere sappiate che probabilmente è nato un nuovo astro nel firmamento: speriamo solo non passi troppo prima che il mondo si accorga di questa luce!
Voto Recensore: 80
--- www.metallized.it
LIVE REVIEWS FROM 2007
Located along one of Canada's most notorious stretches of pavement, the dilapidated dive that is the Balmoral Hotel bar transformed into the perfect heavy metal haven, for a couple hours at least. Vancouver's Gross Misconduct opened the show with their brand of death metal, best described as fundamentally influenced by the likes of Chuck Schuldiner with more focus on melody, Arsis tendencies in riff building, and the occasional Gorod shred. Though their moniker may suggest otherwise, pay close attention to GM; they could become the West coast's only beacon of noteworthy metal.
-- Exclaim! Live review from July 2007.
LIVE REVIEWS FROM AMON AMARTH SHOW -- Dec.14 in Vancouver
Fist fights, Viking lore, and no mercy. This basically summed up Friday evening at the Croatian Cultural Centre in terms of both performances and attendees. A sweaty, bloody and savage capacity crowd pulled many punches as the music and atmosphere fueled rowdy mosh-pits and fist fights to break out at any given moment and any given place (although sometimes difficult to tell the two apart).
Getting things started off (late addition) were local thrash juggernauts Gross Misconduct. The Vancouver natives' first show in front of such a sizable audience had them greeted warmly with supportive devil horns and lighters being raised appropriately. Unleashing technical thrash in the vein of Slayer, At The Gates and Mastodon to a receptive crowd must of been a great feeling and surely a sign of things to come.
---- Abort Magazine
It was a cold and dreary winter night on December 14th, 2007 in rain-soaked Vancouver. Viking ships disguised as tour buses pulled up in front of the Croatian Cultural Centre, carrying a crew of Norsemen prepared to pillage the venue and to unleash Swedish death metal upon the crowd of angst-ridden teenagers and drunken metalheads. After a pat-down by the anal retentive security guards at the CCC, we made our way into the main hall that already smelled of a mixture of various kinds of smoke and kids who hadn't yet realized that deodorant use comes with puberty.
Vocalist/guitarist David London opened up Gross Misconduct's set with a brief tribute to the late Chuck Schuldiner of Death and proceeded to ambush the audience with 30 minutes of death-metal-inspired thrash. You could feel the love in the room for this local Vancouver band as lighters were raised for the melodic opening notes of the second song before London's guttural vocals kicked in. The Death influence was obvious as the band played some extremely technical riffs that had the crowd convulsing in metal bliss.
---- metalunderground.com