Band: Gollum
Album title: The Core
Label: Rotten Records
Distributor: Sonic Rendezvous - Bertus
Release date:  June 2009
Release: CD

Formed in late summer of 1998 by Hunter Holland and brothers Frank and Serge Stroehmer, Wilmington, North Carolina's Gollum ( a name derived from the Yiddish “goylem”) which literally translates to “shapeless mass. The band’s line up consisted of the hypnotic corrosive guitars of Frank Stroehmer, the pulsating bass of his brother Serge, and the blitzkrieg drumming of Hunter Holland.

But during the making of this album something tragic happened, at the end of summer, the band was almost finished with the album and getting excited about what the future held for them. After Hunter Holland completed “The Core” drum tracks, the founding member suddenly died of a heart attack on September 10, 2008 in Raleigh, North Carolina. The surviving members were devastated by Holland’s passing and put everything on hold while they pondered the loss of their brother and the future of the band without one of their foundation. But they realized they had to go on as they felt Hunter would have wanted them to, and went about the task of searching for a new drummer.

Drummer and friend Seth Long, who had played with Frank in a side project, was called for the job and played his first show with Gollum on New Year's Eve of 2009.
The album isn’t a classic death metal cd, it’s less heavy in sound witch makes a great cd for people new to the genre and the songs aren’t a typical verse-chorus-verse example but hold a new and most welcome formula with lots of riffs an passages. Unfortunately towards the end of the album, you have the feeling it all sounds a bit the same. Luckily guest vocalists Randy Blythe (Lamb of God), Dixie Collins (Weedeater) and Scott Angelacos (Hope and Suicide) gives it an edge that makes this cd a gem.

90/100

Jeroen.