Originally written by Dante Sacomani.
After my initial listen to Gaza’s I Don’t Care Where I Go When I Die I could distinctly feel only one real emotion. Guilt. Where the hell had I been? Why had I not been clued in about this band sooner? After some research turned up that this was the band’s first full length, I was again surprised, it wasn’t the high mark of multi-album evolution I had taken it for, it was just the infancy. Suddenly, the unnecessary guilt of oversight began to subside and slowly made room for well-deserved awe to set in.
At risk of setting expectations too high, let me first be clear about one thing – I Don’t Care Where I Go When I Die isn’t any pioneering any musical ground not already well flagged by the legendary likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan or even Botch. Hell, the record will probably even be overlooked in the coming months when every metal aficionado with a Myspace starts crafting his or her real best of 2006 list. Regardless, that shouldn’t take away from the fact that this is an exemplary piece of grind influenced tech metal. Before getting too detailed, if it makes things any clearer – the LP is right at home on the Blackmarket Activities roster where it resides. At times it is as quick and deadly as a street level AK skirmish, at others, as distant and heavy as a mortar exchange between the warring religious factions in the city the band presumably used as a namesake. Where the album finds real success is that it showcases a level of maturity that similar bands sometimes lack. I Don’t Care Where I Go When I Die is far removed from the egotism that has seen several tech bands oversaturate songs with an innumerable quantity of riffs just for the sake of doing so or thinking it will bolster their technical credibility. While it is certainly not without its own exponential amount of abrupt time signature swap-outs or even sudden and total riff abandonment – it is offset by the effort Gaza take to build on some of their many themes and explore them a little further. Tracks like “Hospital Fat Bags” and “Moth” see the band – even in all their spazz glory – letting their frenzied catharsis de-evolve into short-lived, near doom-paced drones with even just a fair hint ambient undertone. By turn, they also know how to effectively layer upon their note gluttonous yet meticulous compositions intensifying them to a peak of high art chaos that then, in an instant, tightens, condenses and regroups in the form of a venomous breakdown that would make Into the Moat proud.
There aren’t going to be a lot of people hailing this release as groundbreaking or genre defying, but there is no reason it should be discredited for those reasons alone. I Don’t Care Where I Go When I Die remains a heavy and solid debut well worth it to adamant tech/grind fans or even maybe for the more casual listener. In this day and age of bands sticking together with about the same frequency as couples that stay married – it would be foolish to say this band’s next release could be huge. But who knows, if they stick it out we may be hearing good things from them in the future. This is certainly a very promising launch point.
