Ghold’s first album in six years possesses a monstrous, viscous form.It’s a shape that makes its appearance through the album’s warping, dark atmospheres. Murky samples, eerie synth drones, tribal toms and shifting band dynamics radiate apprehension from within its core, a feeling which only intensifies across its runtime. Their previous tags of “doom metal” on albums like STOIC and PYR seem to have expanded into even darker realms on this new record. Tracks like ‘Leaves’ evoke epic and foreboding atmospheres, making for a brutal yet evocative listen.
Originally a two-piece consisting of bass, vocals and drums, Ghold have become increasingly expansive in their songwriting. The band currently are: Al Wilson (bass, electric guitar, lapsteel, voice, piano), Paul Antony (drums and percussion, voice, synthesizer, piano), Oli Martin (electric guitar, voice, piano, flute) and Alex Virji (bass, voice).
The scratchy, white-noisy drones present in their previous album, Input>chaos, are expanded upon and made more prominent in Bludgeoning Simulations. Opening with dirgeful piano before launching into a snake-pit of deep guitars and crashing drums, the album’s introductory track, ‘Cauterise’, foreshadows the album’s ability to contrast diverse textures. The record’s penultimate track, ‘Leaves’, begins with a shuffling, abrasive sample which sounds like nails on a chalkboard. However, trademark deep and gloomy bass guitars soon enter the soundscape to add contrast to the collage of grinding textures and bleak atmosphere. This oscillation in dynamics and soundscapes appears to be a motif throughout the album. The sonic landscapes shift between dramatic, brutal noise and deceivingly calm ambience.
Since 2019, the members had spent several years dispersed, each absorbed in distinct personal trajectories and creative endeavours. The album was recorded in the remote Giant Wafer Studio in the Welsh hillside of Powys by producer and engineer Wayne Adams. Consequently, the recording sessions for Bludgeoning Simulations embodied a deliberate return to communion. Its setting in expansive rural terrain extracted Ghold from London’s frenetic tumult and ushered them into seclusion.
These ensuing currents of solitude and introspective reckoning course palpably throughout the record. ‘Rude, Awaken’ is an absolutely barbaric closer. The track is viciously charged by the band’s unison chanting over deep, convulsing instrumental rhythms, stopping then writhing into a climax that releases a sharp yet surprisingly hopeful and melancholic guitar. It stabs through the mix like Excalibur’s sword. A harsh yet evocative end to an assaultive yet thoughtful album.
