Review: Cold Gawd ‘I’ll Drown On This Earth’
Recent years has seen a big-time resurgence for a genre of music which was once feared a distant memory. It’s been a long while since the ‘90s saw a spike in interest for the genre of shoegaze, and mostly, although there have been a few bands keeping the embers glowing, on the whole, its largely been forgotten about.
The nostalgia for Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine, amongst countless others, has seen several bands reform, while completely new entities have emerged to renovate and reinvigorate the scene completely.
While the scene was predominantly UK and EU based bands back in the day, recent times has seen a slurry of new entities come through, a lot of which have come from the US to give the rest of the globe a run for its money. While last year the band Mad Honey made it in to my top ten, this year it is the turn of Cold Gawd to lead the way on the North American shoegaze scene.
Following on from 2021’s God Get Me The Fuck Out Of Here, the band are now imminently releasing their new album I’ll Drown On This Earth, and it’s an absolute scorcher.
The band, which began life as the baby of multi-instrumentalist Matthew Wainright, has now become a fully-fledged act. Fused together by several euphoric entities, who have taken the debut concepts and revolutionised them into a sublime cacophony of blissful drone sonnets, the resulting album is such a richly thick syrup of post-hardcore shoegaze, which will leave you dreaming on, long after its finished.
Over the course of the eight tracks, they take you from despair to dystopia, via a plateau of dreamy otherworldliness. Forget what you think you know of shoegaze because Cold Gawd are here to rewrite the fundamentals. For those with somewhat of an awareness of the genre, from my own experiences, I would be compelled to nestle Cold Gawd into the same carriage as Slow Crush and Drowse, with a vibrant splattering of Mad Honey thrown in for good measure.
The dark, luxurious tracks tend to be quite abrasive at times, and this offsets against the narrative of dreaminess that shoegaze tends to convey. There is a gravelly backbone to the affair, and it’s these rough edges which strike the comparison with Slow Crush to me. The dark beauty that is entwined does make for an unsettling journey at times, but it’s that raw, unpolished grit which harnesses all the power.
latches on to those dreamscape and shoegaze tones…
Opening with a scream on Gorgeous, we are welcomed into the band’s domain, albeit via a doomy dankness, which dissipates off into a hazy shoegaze realm after the first minute. Instantly stamping a style of freshness on the scene, this American sounding diversion on the genre is a welcome one and even manages to shake things up along the route, with a more guttural vocal, which hits at being very Svalbard-esque.
Track two, Portland piles on the oppression, and with its heavy, dark, drudgy distortion, it’s hard to recognise it as being remotely shoegaze in stature. This is where those dreamy vocals roll in, to navigate the way and stamp the seal on this future classic.
One of the more stand out moments for me is track three, the aptly lengthy titled All My Life My Heart Has Yearned For A Thing I Cannot Name. As well as understanding this concept only too well, the track itself really latches on to those dreamscape and shoegaze tones, and as I listen, I find myself completely engulfed with emotion for this outpouring. Nowhere near as heavy as the previous tracks, it is more emotionally weighty then it is sonically heavy.
Duchamp Is My Lawyer swiftly brings things back round, with an abrasive score, the perfect juxtaposition to the dreamscape vocal sonnet. The next couple of tracks, Malibu Beach House, and Tappan perfectly encapsulate the band’s rich diversity in sound and texture. One is awkwardly beautiful, while the other showcases a dreamy side, lighter and intoxicatingly hypnotic. These two tracks prove that the band can convey a huge skillset in understanding emotive dynamics sound wise.
Nudism is the penultimate track, and again, pulls in an experience which is altogether trippier in context. This far into the album, I really thought I had been through the band’s catalogue of sounds, but I was wrong. A perfect interlude to roll the album on to its last soiree, Bird In Space.
This final offering is the ideal swansong to the album. It mixes elements from each track, everything from awkward distortion to heartbreaking sorrow and displays the band’s skill while tying things together nicely. This closing sonnet rounds things off nicely, and in doing so, gives a feeling of completion deep down inside.
An absolute joy to behold, I’ll Drown On This Earth is the dawning of a new era and the rejuvenation of the whole shoegaze dynamic, which, has been slowly picking up pace for a while now. Incredible, truly incredible.
Label: Dais Records
Band Links: Official | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Scribed by: Lee Beamish
