Ghold Open With Impressive Construction Of Noise
Published
Last month, Chicago-based rock band Oozing Wound embarked on their first string of UK dates. Accompanying them for these shows, from Nottingham to Milton Keynes with stops in Glasgow, Leeds and Bristol, was Ghold- self-titled “weight & grunt power duo”. Sunday the 5th marked the final of the five shows and we headed to the Craufurd Arms, MK to catch Ghold’s set.
With little introduction, the London two-piece asked the audience to “come forward”- a risky request, usually resulting with just a few fans taking a hesitant half-step towards the stage, but the audience of under 50 people eagerly obeyed and gathered closer, ready to be immersed in the loud and sludgy sound that constructs Ghold.
The 30 minute slot opened with the slow and heavy intro of ‘Saw The Falling’, with the fusion of pounding drumwork and bass feedback building up towards a faster, yet murkier sound, inducing head-banging and fist-pumping from the crowd. The track, which exceeds 11 minutes on Ghold’s new record ‘Of Ruin’, then led on to three more songs from the album, with the same style consistent throughout.
The similarity in the tracks made each almost appear indistinguishable from one another; the consistence in prolonged, heavy build-ups before crashing into something faster and louder erased the evidence of a start and stop point, encouraging the entire set-list to blur in to one long construction of noise. The bass and drums were tight throughout, and the vocals (by bassist, Aleks Wilson and drummer, Paul Antony) were just as compelling- varying from growls to hypnotic, layered whispers.
Ghold took full advantage of their short slot by taking few opportunities to talk to the audience, only pausing to say that the show was “gonna be a good one”, and to introduce themselves with “we are Ghold” midway. On the rare occasion that the duo did speak directly to the crowd it would be over a background of feedback and cloaked by the haziness of the smoke on stage.
The set closed with a track from the Ghold archives, exhibiting their older, perhaps less advanced but nonetheless enjoyable style. By this point the audience had grown, as though people were drawn to their sound from elsewhere.
Ghold’s performance was impressive, well-played and absorbing. You can catch them next month on the main stage at Temples Festival, Bristol.
To find out more about Ghold click here.
To visit the Ghold Facebook page click here.
Words by Saf Bugel Pictures by Sean Edwards Video by James Booth