Robert, a.k.a. Dead Gorilla isn’t monkeying around when it comes to making music. Rather, the German guitar player is headed down the well-trodden path of the modern musician in their twenties. Main objective, spend years getting to rule on guitar! Secondary assignment, learn as much about recording off the internet as you possibly can – preferably without going insane.

Efforts like this tend to culminate into a bunch of YouTube videos and at least an album’s worth of original music. In our case, the latter is called “Origins” and features 12 jagged, scraggly instrumental tunes concocted out of metalcore, NWOAHM, and classic heavy metal influences. We invite you to listen to them here. It’s been awhile since these sounds felt en vogue, but Robert doesn’t seem to give a damn.

And why should he? There’s still plenty of life left in fast alt-picked riffing, melodic solos, and pounding double bass drums. No need for weird time signatures or ethereal jazz-solos when you’ve got songs this focused! In fact, Rob’s work is a wonderful reminder that metal sounded perfectly fine before everyone and their grandmother started aping Meshuggah.

Origins has lots of talent on display. If he keeps going at it and doesn’t run out of steam, not only will Robert catch up to his guitar-playing idols, he might as well surpass some of them. His tight playing, love for the art, and young age make for great potential. While the music is good enough to stand on its own, the production could use some sheen, and the absence of vocals sells the tunes a bit short. We believe both problems will be resolved in due time.