Review Summary: Imagine black metal inspired by the soundtracks of Stranger Things and Blade Runner
GosT is an artist that resides in extremis. Anonymous, garbed in hooded cowls and skull masquerades and self-proclaimed as the “Satanic Lord of Slasherwave”, this figure in black traces his steps back to the centre of the pentagram, fully embracing the enveloping darkness and creating brutally destructive synthwave. If there’s one thing that his third album,
“Possessor” does best, it’s underline the fact that a band does not have to be metal to be heavy. If there’s a second thing this album achieves, it’s making you question whether you have ever wondered what it sounds and feels like to be screwed by a synthesiser at full volume?
Whereas artists such as Carpenter Brut and Dan Terminus direct their style of synthwave into sleeker and vibrantly futuristic realms, transcending an atmosphere of suffocating darkness comes easily to GosT. Newsreels from the era of ‘Satanic Panic’ and recordings of performed exorcisms introduce the album before a wall of distortion suddenly obliterates earphones and eardrums alike. As much a shock to the senses as it is a statement to how heavy
“Possessor” manifests, “Garruth” is a lesson in brutality, paralysing you with furious blast beats and brawny bass. “Legion” borrows the absurdly heavy churning bass and from drone and doom metal that leads into a theatrical and eerie soundscape while “Beliar” presents GosT’s black metal façade with explosions of blast beats and dramatic, panicked choir samples to make it sound as if the claustrophobic wall of sound is closing in.
Clearly, GosT is projecting the satanic and nightmarish sensibilities as much as possible. The bass is intensely glitched to make the music sound genuinely unnatural and his screams are mixed behind this noise to appear hallowed and nearly every track includes some spoken word sample, be it a news report, encounters with the Devil or stories about a Catholic family allowing their daughter to die of neglect and malnourishment due to their unyielding devotion to God (“16 A.M”). Unfortunately, the constant repetition of these samples diminishes the fear that GosT tries to illustrate- as if he is actively trying to remind the audience that he is dark and brooding and satanic despite the fact that he is capable of creating these feelings without all these spoken-word samples. There’s a fine line between ‘attitude’ and ‘attitood’, and
“Possessor” does sound as if GosT’s forked tongue is clearly lodged in his cheek, intentionally or not.
Therefore, it’s welcome respite when
“Possessor” tones down the suffocating extremity and focus on the bubbly, energetic and jazzy synthwave that GosT is celebrated for. Instead of mashing your brain to pulp and blasting you with waves of enough edited distortion to make you cross-eyed, like in “Commandment”, GosT lulls his audience into this spacey setting with spectral Depeche Mode-esque vocals during tracks such as “Malum” and “Sigil”, and latches anyone onto an irresistible grooving beat that rides through the entire song uninterrupted by exasperating walls of sound or ritualistic interludes.
“Possessor” is an album not equal to the sum of its parts. It has excellent moments where GosT evokes exactly what he intends: horrific, terrifying and brutalising slasherwave inspired by heavy metal mixed together by colourful and lightheaded grooves to solidify he has not deterred completely from his electronic signature. Yet, minus the overuse of spoken word samples, turn the distortion down to 10 instead of 11 and this album would have been way more coherent.
