Gorguts is a Canadian death metal band formed near Sherbrooke, Quebec, in 1989. The band has gone through various membership changes since its inception; its only constant member has been guitarist-vocalist and co-founding member Luc Lemay, who remains the driving force of the band. To date, they have released five full-length albums and one EP. Their most recent release, Pleiades' Dust, was released on May 13, 2016. Their latest full-length album, Colored Sands was released in 2013 and was nominated for a Juno Award. Musically, the band is known for its complex, dense form of technical death metal, and has become "one of the most advanced, experimental, and challenging groups in the entire genre."

Gorguts was formed in 1989 by Luc Lemay (vocals and guitar), Sylvain Marcoux (guitar), Éric Giguère (bass guitar), and Stephane Provencher (drums); the band name was suggested by one of Provencher's friends. They released their first demo, ...and Then Comes Lividity, in 1990 which led them to be signed to Roadrunner Records. Their first album, Considered Dead, had guest appearances by James Murphy (a guitar solo on "Inoculated Life") and Chris Barnes (backing vocals on "Bodily Corrupted", "Rottenatomy", and "Hematological Allergy"). The album features a more straightforward death metal sound typical of the style prevalent in the early 1990s.

In 1993, they released their second album The Erosion of Sanity, which was more experimental and technical than Considered Dead. That same year, the band took part in the "Blood, Guts and Gore" U.S. tour along with Cannibal Corpse and Atheist. However, this coincided with the decline of death metal's popularity as a genre, and Roadrunner Records subsequently decided to drop the band from their roster. The band ceased performing for five years, with many fans believing that they had broken up.

In fact, the writing for the following album had been completed by the end of 1993, but due to a lack of label interest the release of the album was severely delayed. Lemay, the only remaining original member, returned in 1998 on Olympic Recordings with a new line-up consisting of Steeve Hurdle (guitar), Steve Cloutier (bass guitar), and Patrick Robert (drums). Under this lineup they released their third full-length album, Obscura, which has come to be regarded as "one of the most pungently progressive albums ever made, in or out of metal." It shed whatever remained of their old school death metal sound and embraced a fully avant-garde approach, a style that would become their standard on future releases.

After Obscura, Hurdle left and was replaced by Dan Mongrain of the technical death band Martyr, and Robert was replaced by Steve MacDonald on drums. Gorguts' next album, From Wisdom to Hate, was released in 2001. This album is stylistically a mix between the earlier albums and Obscura. Lemay, the primary songwriter on the album, experimented more with the use of sounds, rather than notes, in riffs, such as the opening riff of the album, on the song "Inverted" which uses a combination of pick-slides, pick tapping and traditional picking.

Steve MacDonald, who had a history of recurrent depression, committed suicide in 2002, which eventually led to the split-up of Gorguts in 2005. In an interview, Lemay said that "When I decided to end the band in 2002 or 2003...after Steve MacDonald passed away, I was done with music and I wanted to devote myself to woodworking full time. I was very happy with all the achievements that the band accomplished so it was all good for me.....no bitterness and no feeling of unfinished business." Lemay moved away from Montreal, "because I was done living there. I wanted to be closer to where I was raised and be closer to nature in a way. After Steve's death I wasn't interested in playing music anymore. I was very content with the musical legacy of the band at that point and I was ready to start a new chapter in my life."

In 2006, Steeve Hurdle asked Lemay to join Hurdle's band Negativa. Lemay accepted "on the condition that everything would be low key. It was all about having fun playing music for me. After a rehearsal Steeve pointed out that it would be cool to make a new Gorguts record to commemorate Gorguts' 20 years of existence. I was all for it and from that point the idea came to play with John (Longstreth – drums), Kevin (Hufnagel – guitar) and Colin (Marston – bass) and create a new record."

In December 2008, a Gorguts demo track with guitar and programmed drums surfaced online, and Lemay himself confirmed an upcoming reunion with Colin Marston, Kevin Hufnagel, and John Longstreth. While the new Gorguts had been performing live and writing new material, Lemay said that the band would not be recording until "late fall" 2010 with a release date some time in 2011; In May 2012, Steeve Hurdle died from post-surgical complications. Legal issues surrounding the band's previous contract to Olympic Records delayed the release of the album. Olympic were taken over by Century Media, and Lemay wanted to renegotiate the band's contract. "They agreed to, but in the end, we didn't see eye to eye on things and we mutually agreed it was better to go our separate ways. Dissolving the contract was a very time consuming and complicated legal affair."