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Two people making quite a lot of cool noise … Ghold are a “weight & grunt power duo” from England (South London) whose weapons are bass & drums. Paul Anthony is in relentlessly charge of the drums whereas Alex Wilson is in charge of vocals and bass, likely equipped with thick thick thick chords …Ghold are a young act as they started playing during early 2012. They released a demo halfway through last year, did much live activity locally, i.e. London area and beyond, but sharing the stage with some substantial bands like Iron Witch, Bast and Meadows, to name a few. They have a new record out duly called Judas Ghoat, that came out as limited edition of 100 cool tape cassettes on April 8th 2013 via label Gnostic/Mystic Records. If you approach Ghold via their sludge rock cover of ZZ-Top’s Bad Girl from Bandcamp, you get instantly conquered by this lo-fi heavy duo. However in that song and in their 2012 demo you may taste a particularly groove-laden and punkish side of this band, that reminds me a wee bit of Satan’s Satyrs, at least for the attitude and not for the vocals, which are dull and raucous in Ghold. In the demo these guys play a raw, no-frills, barebone sludge metal style which is relentless and abrasive but quite groovy. In the 2013 Jesus Ghoat tape, things get even heavier and, above all, much darker. In the four long tracks of this new, almost 40 minutes-long album, distortion and downtuning seem to get even deeper and tempo changes radical, as neatly shown in the stunning 15 minutes-long ballad Our Sciolist’s Ritual. Pace may get unbearably slow, painfully dragged after wild fury has been unleashed. Post-metal dissonance and odd tempo changes are occasionally adopted in the minimalistic but unusual or chaotic riff patterns, so that the leading “melodies” possess a degree of impredictability which is quite intriguing. Try, for example, the vortex-like evolution of the plodding melodies in the mindblowing suite Breathe in Beast.
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Sounds may get more dilated or else extremely contorted and furious (like, for example in the fast track That Woebegone), but they are always filthy and gruesome so that groove is just a poisoning illusion. Last but not least, vocals tend to be probably more tortured and angry, when they are able to emerge from the noise. The extremely downtuned, thundering bass is the real voice of the Ghold duo as it is probably the loudest sound you can hear when those chords as thick as ropes are allowed to vibrate in the construction of these sometimes funereal, sometimes sickly relentless, hypnotic ballads. The first thing I thought when I first approached Ghold in Jesus Ghoat was that to me they sounded like a hybrid between early Mastodon, Melvins, Black Cobra and a Canadian band whose debut album back in 2010, Hometown Heroine, had struck me a lot. I am speaking about the sludge grind band Greber, bass & drum duo related to Fuck The Facts and The Great Sabatini. So the very first impression of Ghold’s sound may be of primitive, brutal, raw simplicity just because Paul and Anthony employ a minimal equipment and their melodies seem to be stripped-down. Yes, brutal and “stripped-down” is the first impression. However when you enter Ghold’s pitch-black ballads you get intoxicated but, at the same time, you start seeing an amazing amount of shades in their dark world. So, folks, if you like to have your skin peeled and scarred, Ghold drum & bass sludge-doom duo, from South London, is definitely a band, no sorry, a two-headed beast to keep under your radar! Get hold of this solid, abrasive, monster tape Jesus Ghoat via Ghold’s Bandcamp page, where you can also find Ghold’s demo for free download. Or else go to the merch page where you can find a cool bundle including the “doom-died” t-shirt with the smart diamond-shaped logo of the band. And find out where these guys play live!!
Words:
Marilena MoroniGhold | FacebookGhold | BandcampGhold | Official WebsiteGhold | Merch Page
Video - GHOLD @ Hole In The Wall
