Galg ‘Monochroom’ Digital EP 2014

Galg 'Monochroom'The Dutch formation Galg will be playing Incubate this year and that is all thanks to their excellent sounding dark doom. According to their bio they are happy people, just putting all negativity in their music. That negativity is a lot then, since the records are dark and full of despair.

Monochroom‘ is Dutch for, you guessed it, monochrome. That colour here is black with a bit of white. The band seems to have an interesting sense of humour, but also a great sense of how to make really dark music that feels, indeed, very monochrome. Their bandcamp has the line on top in Dutch ‘Does this make you happy?’.

Monochroom‘ is a 26 minute descent into despair. The opening is like a bell tolling for mass. A bleak buzzing evokes dark clouds and a grim day. Samples from speech add an atmosphere of unholy ritual to the sound while the buzzing sound of the amps continues like an abysmal depth for the listener. A slow chanting arises from that deep bass sound. The sound swells up and suddenly blast beats emerge and intense guitar work lays out a barrage of dark sound while the sound of wind is sweeping through.

That barrage lasts four minutes onwards. Rising and falling slightly, intensifying and distorting into a roaring haze of sonic onslaught. When the tide ebbs away, guitar tones (in minor, everything in minor) can be heard and we switch from what could be called a black metal vibe to despairing doom. This part is slow and so heavy you feel it in your gut. Ghoulish howls accompany the crushing riffs 18 minutes into this jam. This becomes more hectic and grim with every riff that’s thrown at you. The howls become shrieks of madness.

It all then slowly fades away in a haze of distorted clouds; all that remains is a rasping tapping sound. The end has been reached on what I can only call a maddening trip in darkness. So yeah, it does make me happy.

Label: Self Released
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp

Scribed by: Guido Segers