Ghold ‘PYR’ CD/LP/DD 2016

Ghold 'PYR'A progressive noise trio from London they call themselves and they make music that definitely fits the description. Either that or Ghold have been recording the world falling apart around you in some way. Their new album PYR is out. It’s pretty hectic.

Ghold are currently on a tour to promote this new effort with Palehorse. If it was any other band I’d be worried, because Ghold is going to knock the wind out of anyone else’s sails, probably. Oh, they’ll also be out with Bongripper later this month as well. The title might have taken from Pyrford House in Brixton, where the band made the album in hectic times. It reflects hectic times for sure.

Opener Collision With Traitors is like running into a wall of almost twelve minutes of rambling noise. I’m sure I heard a Dalek scream somewhere in the opening minutes, probably hovering away to save its life after facing the threatening sonic onslaught that Ghold is offering. The basslines feel heavy and thick, like the coiling of an anaconda in chilly weather, slow and heavy as hell, but then suddenly snapping at you. There’s a threat in the sound that slaps the listener around, as if it were a little mouse, in its super massiveness.

Every note the band plays feels like you’re being hit by a hammer, whether it’s one of those thick slabs of riffing madness or just the ever pounding drums. When the two spiral together, like on Blud, it becomes an unstoppable force ever increasing in velocity. This is what the eye of the storm sounds like. Add to that the shouted vocals and you’re completely overwhelmed by the Britons. The next moment the jagged approach ends into some sort of repetitive roar fest with crushing riffs, more reminiscent of a Conan tack, featuring some chaotic, free falling guitars in the background. It seems to last forever, this part of CCXX, giving voice to primordial fury for about 8 minutes.

The band uses a lot of distortion and I imagine a forest of effect pedals in front of their guitars. Noisey archs and big drones fill the void when there’s a little gap in the sound. It makes the track Despert Thrang, with its chanting and minimal sound, even more odd and out of place. Luckily the sludge riffing slaps you in the face a moment later, again suddenly bursting out with jamming cymbals. This is what a wrecking ball sounds like. On the CD you’ll get a bonus track, titled Something Of Her Old Fire, a barrage of more heavy assaults on which the band can really let go for a bit. It seems to sort of fall out of place with the organic whole of the four tracks that make up the album, but that doesn’t make it less cool.

Ghold’s PYR is an album you would prefer to have on vinyl and see that slab of dark material melt on your turn table as the monolithic massiveness blasts out your windows and makes your tea cups rattle. What a trip.

Label: Ritual Productions
Band Links: Official | Facebook | Bandcamp | Twitter

Scribed by: Guido Segers