I grabbed this promo because the Gurkhas were this revered, ghost-like unit of the British Army, where I spent a little time. If you want to read the history of this unique military entry of Nepalese badasses (now the Royal Gurkha Rifles) , check it out here.
Here, Gurkkhas (with an extra K?) is a recently reunited French death metal band that was active from 1999 to 2001, releasing 2 albums on Massacre and Morbid Records, respectively. However, I never crossed paths with them back then, despite writing for multiple webzines and publications.
To celebrate their recent reunion, Gurkkhas and Underground Syndicate have remastered and released those two albums: 2000’s Engraved in Blood, Flesh and Souls and 2001’s A Life of Suffering.
Both albums are, of course, war- and heavily Gurkha-themed, with song titles like “Gurkkhas at War”, “The 12 Gurkkhas Commandments”, “Kukri” ( the famed dagger the Gurkhas used), and “Born on a Day of War”, etc., and I can only assume the songs extol the regiments’ many victories.
Musically, this is pretty standard 2000 brutalish death metal. I hear some of fellow Frenchman Loudblast or Hypokras, who were around at the time (go check out 2002s Dead and Hungry). Despite the warring themes, it’s not a Bolt Thrower knockoff, being a more thrashy European-meets-American death metal sound of the day. It’s not great, but it’s not terrible, especially considering it’s 25 years old. It’s the sort of death metal Deathgasm, Rottrevore, The LSP Company, and Sevared Records were churning out at the time.
The Engraved in Blood, Flesh and Souls tracks, despite being remastered, are still pretty rough and bog-standard 00s death metal that was saturating the scene, but tracks like “The Voice of the Terrible One” and lurching”The 12 Gurkkhas Commandments” are solid. My sort of gripe is the more thrash-hardcore vocals of Jean-François Rey.
A Life of Suffering is more of the same but a little better sounding, with a tad more low end, and slightly deeper, more death metal-ish vocals. A much more technical, American, Floridian influence is here, with Malevolent Creation, Diabolic, Monstrosity, or Internecine coming to mind, which, considering the timeline and scene at the time, makes sense.
The likes of “Kukri, “The Day of Battle,” and “Legacy” all deliver that primal early 00s American Death metal. That said, I’m not exactly clamoring for what the reunited project delivers next, as I’m sure it will be more of the same. Which is fine, but much like the scene in the early 00s, it wasn’t spectacular and was a bit saturated.
