Formed in 2019, the ascent of Canada’s GUTVOID has been nothing if not meteoric. After two EPs and a 4way split, it's time for their debut album, unleashed bearing the ominous title Durance of Lightless Horizons. Immediately, this titanic recording bears the hallmarks of the still-fresh GUTVOID sound: heaving, vertigo-inducing, spiraling like tar-thick smoke. And yet, the sterling sense of clarity the quartet only hinted at before takes full flight here; Durance of Lightless Horizons entices and then entrances the listener with a yearning, come-hither sort of melodicism underpinned by both melancholy and malice. That the execution has somehow tightened up even more – truly, GUTVOID’s chops were exemplary before – allows these doom-drenched ruminations to cut sharper than ever, giving even the most stuck-in-quicksand passages to impart palpitating movement. But, rest assured that the songwriting across Durance of Lightless Horizons is an ever-so-patient one; linear to the very end, each passage conveys its sensation and then slithers into the next with a grace quite at odds with such a gutted sound. It is not hyperbole to suggest that Durance of Lightless Horizons is one of the most fully-formed death metal debuts in recent memory.