GNOD - Chronicles of Gnowt (Vol 2) GNOD

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.

The results are amongst the most fearsome and kinetic material that Gnod have summoned to date. 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 the band's Chris Haslam.

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 Friedrich Nietzsche: “Is man merely a mistake of Gnod's? Or Gnod merely a mistake of man?”