Some things in life are wishes or wants, but not needed for continued existence. Extreme music is no different. It can stagnate and languish in the mediocre and mundane for what seems like years on end. From time to time, a band stirs the pot and shakes the foundations of music. Re-enter the scene Canada's technical metal phenomenon, Gorguts. Twelve years later from having released _From Wisdom to Hate_ in 2001, founding member, mastermind and vocalist/guitarist, Luc Lemay, re-energized the band for a brand new effort. As the effort turned out, the genre so desperately needed _Colored Sands_ to be written and delivered for the world's longing consumption.

Most involved with the metal community are ardently aware of impressive contributions made by this legendary band. Stretching back to the very late 1980s and early '90s, Gorguts has laid some of the most thought-provoking, consequential and impassioned material at the doorstep of death metal that has ever been documented. The raw power and driving authority of 1991's _Considered Dead_ to the depressingly undervalued _The Erosion of Sanity_ followed by the more celebrated ­_Obscura_ in 1998, leading up to the profoundly complex _From Wisdom to Hate_, Gorguts proves the age old adage "the only constant is change".

_Colored Sands_ is the unexpected next step in the Gorguts progressive journey. Even the subject matter of _Colored Sands_ is analytical and intellectually challenging; the life, times, religion and consequential hardships of the Tibetan people. All nine tracks are bullet-proof specimens of mood, aggression and atmospheric death metal. From "Le Toit du Monde" ("The Roof of the World") to "Reduced to Silence", Gorguts ups the ante.

This album is wrought through with a special brand of proscribed pandemonium, unexpected tempo change, seasoned orchestral arrangement ("The Battle of Chamdo") and rhythmic anomalies. _Colored Sands_ capitalizes and perfects what Gorguts put into motion over two decades prior. This type of "thinking man's metal" is not only appreciated, but indispensable to extreme music. With _Colored Sands_, Gorguts replenishes the well of inspiration and provocative genre-bending dominion and refinement. _Colored Sands_ isn't only relevant, but an essential addition to the Gorguts catalog and a vital piece to collective of aggressive, extreme metal music.