Gozer are a UK post-metal band and this is their debut album.
Described as for fans of Neurosis, Cult of Luna, and Isis, An Endless Static offers us 47 minutes of post-metal darkness across five weighty tracks.
Gozer’s music is harsh and aggressive in a slow, gradually-unfolding, mood-focused way. The post-metal build/release mechanic is well-used, allowing the band to produce songs that are atmospheric and immersive.
The songs are dense and claustrophobic, but not exclusively; the atmospheric textures that the band conjure into existence have a raw emotive presence that is allowed to breathe and spread their darkness through various mechanisms and sounds. Gozer have learned from the abovementioned masters well, and know how to use light and shade in their music to good effect. Guests appear on a few tracks, (from Hundred Year Old Man, Torpor, and Ba’al), to add even further texture, including vocals, viola, synths, and French horn.
The band have a hypnotic delivery that’s compelling. Developing their dark soundscapes with glacial pace, Gozer reveal themselves to be adept at crafting slow-burning mood-pieces. Bleak melodies are shards of light jutting from the ruins of civilisation, while the oppressive darkness of the underlying music continues to smother all but the hardiest of souls. There’s an interesting tension in some of this material, between the bright near-hopeful nature of the music’s resplendent elements and the grim, harsh, nightmare existence of its sludge misery.
An Endless Static is a strong and capable album. Gozer’s Neurosis-esque post-metal is both familiar and individual, allowing the music to benefit from the listener’s familiarity with the style, while also delivering something of worth in its own right. If you’re a fan of post-metal and sludge, then I recommend you pay some attention to this band.
Wonderbox Metal 