Chronicles of Gnowt (Vol 2)

+++PRE-ORDER+++

Release Date: 9th of October

(All physical vinyl copies comes with download codes)

GNOD

‘CHRONICLES OF GNOWT (VOL 2)’

Two decades have passed in the land of Gnod, yet the psychic travelogue only becomes more enthralling as it goes on. And whilst this band has flourished via dauntless conviction, hive-mind magic and a fierce and uncompromising spirit, one ingredient has served as a crucial fuel for the fire – the monolithic singularity of the riff. 


This second chapter of Gnod’s sort-of-anniversary trilogy also originates in the same six day sessions as the first, at Hellfire Studios near Dublin with producer Spud Murphy (Lankum, Black Midi etc). Yet the focus this time is on the transcendental heaviness and repetition that the band have often used as a primary fulcrum of their approach. This volume captures the sound of strings flayed, throats shredded, skins punished by the organic chemistry of this formidably powerful band in a room.

Operating as ever stubbornly adrift of all or any genre restrictions, the coruscating workouts chronicled here evolved on the road in the last two years before being honed and perfected in the studio setup by Murphy. “Spud was masterful – recording live, pushing us to do more takes and then when the right take was done, by the time we got to the desk from the live room he already had it sounding great for playback” relates the band’s Paddy Shine.

The results are amongst the most fearsome and kinetic material that Gnod have summoned to date. The opening ‘The Witness’ takes a The Ex-ish groove and sets it in motion before driving a wall of incandescent guitar scree through it. ‘Ice Man’ redlines an animalistic Melvins-style framework into the realms of dystopian burnout. ‘Old Gold’ meanwhile centres on three-guitar interplay snaking around a muscular, taut groove, with Paddy’s feverish declamations acting as master of ceremonies.

As has often been the case for a band heavily driven by serendipity and intuition, the best plan is no plan at all. “We find quite regularly that spontaneity and the no thought approach works better than over analysis and detailed planning” clarifies Chris Haslam “Paddy's stream of consciousness lyrical approach is another example of how when we remove our own will from the process, something purer, more real & more connected fills the void.”

Yet the centrepiece of the record is Strangled, a quarter-hour weapons-grade Gnod tour de force on which a hypnotic, concrete heavy structure is wedded to dubbed-out abstraction, and all anchored by the spoken word sermonising of Manchester-based poet and ‘certified legend’ Lauren McLean “We nearly always have a 15 minute banger on an album, we love that thing of a long repetitive groove that we can have some fun in the mix with” Paddy notes. “Strangled finally gave us an opportunity to use an Air Raid Siren and get Lauren in, Lauren is a great wordsmith and great performer, we have been waiting for the right opportunity to work with her. She smashed it”.

Maximal yet minimal, claustrophobic yet expansive, free in approach yet mercilessly disciplined in their intensity – Gnod like every truly great band are a mass of contradictions. On ‘Chronicles of Gnowt (Vol 2)’, this thunderous paradox has never sounded fiercer. To paraphrase Nietzsche: “Is man merely a mistake of Gnod's? Or Gnod merely a mistake of man?”.

---