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User
Reviews 4
Approval 100%
Soundoffs 52
Album Ratings 2376
Objectivity 60%
Last Active 02-17-22 1:12 am
Joined 02-03-09
Review Comments 693
| GosT: A Retrospective
GosT was undoubtedly one of the most influential artists in the darker synthwave scene, alongside Perturbator, Carpenter Brut, and Dance With the Dead. He went all in on the occult, horror-infused satanic panic theme very early on. He was always pushing darksynth further, making it heavier and more metal long before Mick Gordon's Doom soundtrack set the 'template' for what metal electronic music sounded like. He was not afraid to experiment, shown in his oft-maligned darkwave switch, but he did not abandon his core fans, as shown in his final album. Now that he's gone without a trace, it's time for me to jam everything he's done and report back. Rest easy James. | | 1 |  | GosT
Radio Macabre
His debut EP was released in Jaunary 2013, and there really wasn't a lot in the world of darksynth at that point. Perturbator, Carpenter Brut, and Mega Drive had set their foot in the scene at this point, but they flirted with horror synth at best and were mainly darker broodier electronic beats. This clearly wears the horror film soundtrack influence on its sleeve and makes some decent dark clubbing tunes, one of which would appear later on his first album. Adequate.
3.0 | | 2 |  | GosT
The Night Prowler
Released one month after Radio Macabre, and it already has a darker edge to it with a fatter bass tone. My most common complaint about a lot of GosT's work that I unfortunately accidentally picked up on is the man loves his basic ass kick snare kick snare four on the floor house beat. But here he does switch it up for a few sections. These compositions are a clear step up from the debut, with much better synth sound choices. Actually really solid spooky jams. Don't ignore the EPs, folks, you'll miss hidden gems like this.
4.0 | | 3 |  | GosT
Nocturnal Shift
Released two months after The Night Prowler, this feels like a continuation of that EP but slightly mixing up what sounds are used. Slightly underwater sounding bass tone is neat, but I prefer the previous EP's. It also had better dynamics; this kind of blends into one horror funk bop outside of the samples.
3.5 | | 4 |  | GosT
Skull
The last of his four releases from 2013. Immediately this is even heavier sounding than things before. I feel here he became more comfortable and stuck to his established sound of being really dark, heavy, fucked-up house music. The horror synth sounds are there as a melodic backdrop, but the atmosphere of spook isn't there in the music anymore, more of a window dressing. But this is just a fun little album and probably the heaviest electronic music was at the time without being something non-mainstream like harsh noise (he says without researching that claim at all).
3.5 | | 5 |  | GosT
GosT
His last EP (that wasn't cutting room floor tracks), released in February 2014. This sounds more like his debut LP in terms of sounds used, so he's settled in on that front. The horror synth is back, but it's in darker sections that go all minor key and shit instead of being a constant presence. But what is a constant presence is the bludgeoning heaviness, but there's still nice variety despite the intensity. This is what I wanted more of when I heard the debut LP, and it was here all along.
4.0 | | 6 |  | GosT
Behemoth
The first LP released in April of 2015, shortly after Hotline Miami 2 came out and really dragged more people in to this subgenre of music. This was my first exposure to GosT probably like many others, and while parts of this were probably the heaviest synth people had heard at the time, it's pared back compared to some of those EPs. While it's definitely darksynth primary, there's enough synthwave here (albeit inspired by like 80s action movies and less the music of the 80s itself), even outside of the obligatory female guest vocal track that a lot of the major acts were doing at the time. Sparkly melodic parts and such. I still think Without a Trace is one of the finest synthwave songs, having that perfect blend of loud as fuck but light and sweet. Bathory Bitch was the track I was alluding to in the last entry; something heavier than normal for this album but would snugly fit on the self-titled. But this is a nice cocktail of darksynth, synthwave, and horror synth, even if it feels | | 7 | | GosT
Behemoth
even if it feels a bit disjointed at times lol didn't know there was a character limit to these entries.
3.5 | | 8 |  | GosT
Non Paradisi
Here GosT fully leans into the satanic panic gimmick, and most of the synthwave is stripped out despite having more vocal tracks. But it sounds like a blend between Behemoth and the self-titled; a continuation of Behemoth's sound but with more evil from the EP. A more focused vision compared to Behemoth, but nothing here reaches the peaks of that album for me. I feel there's a touch too many vocal tracks here; I like them as palette cleansers so to speak, but when you get more than two they start to become too much of a disruption imo.
3.5 | | 9 |  | GosT
Non Paradisi (Secret Arcana)
An EP of some songs that didn't make the cut of the album, but it's also a bit more than that. The first two are more of the same from the parent album, but Amy's Wager and Voces sound different for sure, a teaser for the next album. Then the two extended tracks are from Behemoth, and while it's nice to hear fuller versions of them they're definitely audibly not from Non Paradisi. But it's still a good enough selection of tracks.
3.5 | | 10 |  | GosT
Possessor
Here it is, GosT's magnum opus. How do you make something like Non Paradisi even more kvlt and svtvnic? Add black metal, of course. But the metal parts aren't pushed straight to the front like a gimmick, but rather tastefully sprinkled throughout his established sound. The percussion sounding like it's sampled from an actual drum kit is a nice touch, and he deviates from his beloved kick snare pattern by far the most on this album. By all means, this should be disjointed like Behemoth; there's the blackened darksynth songs, more brooding atmospheric darksynth, and even a hint of things to come with the vocal tracks having heavy darkwave influence... but everything here feels like it belongs. It's been eight years, and I'm still waiting for something to get darker than parts of this album, but maybe it's a Roche limit before it becomes too suffocating and uninteresting. Also I really love this album cover despite its simplicity.
4.5 | | 11 |  | GosT
The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia
Didn't know he made music for a video game. The theme is on brand for him, since it's a game about an exorcist. Not sure how you combine a bullet hell and a typing game without eating shit, especially when WASD trains your PC video game movement to left hand (surely this would have to use the arrow keys). But enough about musing about a game I haven't played, it's time to muse about music I've listened to. This is pretty cool, sounding like Non Paradisi with some Skull and self-titled sprinkled in. Definitely a hidden bonus GosT album that many have overlooked, though it doesn't stand out in the grand scheme of things.
3.5 | | 12 |  | GosT
Valediction
Released a year after Possessor, but GosT signed with Century Media Records, which isn't the best of signs when an indie artist goes on a major record label. He definitely always wanted to try out this direction based on the two vocal tracks on Possessor, but this album feels like an identity crisis of sorts. Gothic darkwave, darksynth, and black metal? He only sang those two tracks on Possessor because of a time crunch... he's not a very good vocalist. He stuck to more of a brooding croon on those songs, but since there's far more vocal songs here he tries to go outside of his range and it's not great. But then hey, let's throw the old fans a bone and have a few instrumental tracks that are still softer compared to most songs in discography up to his point! He had the right mix with Possessor, but this was pushing too many little things too far and that Jenga tower collapsed.
2.0 | | 13 |  | GosT
Rites of Love and Reverence
I was pretty much signed out of GosT after Valediction; he was chasing this new "blackwave" concoction he created and leaving the sound that the name 'GosT' came to personify behind. But I was being a little too harsh on this album now that I revisit it. There's still too much vocals when he's not good at singing, but this is a far more focused album than Valediction. Though it is amusing that while the drumming has evolved compared to his usual fare, pretty much all of these songs have the exact same progression and it's kind of boring as a result. And the two comparable tracks on Possessor are better than anything on this album, imo. I don't know how much backlash he was getting from this new sound, but I think if he kept on this track he would have found something that worked out... but he really needed a new vocalist for this sound.
3.0 | | 14 |  | GosT
Prophecy
I figured this would be more of the same, but this is definitely a comeback album of his older sound... makes you wonder if Century Media had any hand in his blackwave sound, since this was on a different record group. We're back to mostly instrumental songs, but this is a nice blend of Behemoth, Non Paradisi, and Possessor with hints of his blackwave in the vocal songs, and lots of fun fucked up horror synth sounds. I still think Possessor is better overall, but this was a promising hint of things to come... but unfortunately that is no longer the case. Now that he's dead, this feels like a fitting capstone of his work and a culmination of everything he's done.
4.0 | |
pyroflare77
04.04.26 | RIP | Jebull
04.05.26 | RIP :( Such a shame. | pyroflare77
04.05.26 | 10, 5, 14, 2, 6/7, 8, 4, 11, 3, 9, 13, 1, 12 would be my ranking | ShartHarder
04.05.26 | Never listened to the guy, this feels like a good time to jump in and use this as a guide |
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