Genre : Math-rock, Noise rock, Experimental rock
Released : October 21st, 2022
Label : Prosthetic Records
FFO : Alpha Male Tea Party, Poly-Math, Aiming For Enrike, Bicurious
I only first found out about the Cork experimental noise-makers God Alone this year through A-Tota-So's album "Lights Out" which kicks off with the gritty track "Choke" on which God Alone's main vocalist and guitarist, Jake O'Driscoll is featured.
Just one look at "ETC" 's track listing as well as the song lengths and you can already expect an unconventional listening experience that doesn't cater to accessibility or easy-listening, with most tracks averaging around the seven or eight minute mark.
Album opener "Tinfoil in the Walls" confirms this as it opens the parade with odd rhythmic patterns that immediately give God Alone's music a disjointed and unpredictable feel, upon which polyrhythmic math-rock guitars join in, accompanied by electronic elements such as synths and additional percussive elements.
Mechanical-sounding hits of bass and drums drift in and out of the song, creating a disorientating impression of dissonance between the more free-form mathy noodlings and the steady industrial cadence.
The abrupt multiple rhythmical and stylistical changes that occur within God Alone's tracks give their music an almost improvisational quality to it, and that sentiment can be felt even more so in the following ten-minute track puzzlingly named "Kung Fu Treachery", which makes great use of "stop-and-start" moments as well as gang vocals.
God Alone refer to their sound as "dance infused math/noise rock" and it soon becomes clear why.
Indeed, despite having a rather harsh, cold and jagged approach to math-rock, sometimes even delving into more sludgy territory and some sections even starting to lean into black/death metal territory due to some select vocal deliveries, God Alone always muster a danceable and entrancing quality to their controlled cacophony, whether that is through the voicings used for the softer math-rocky riffs or the electro influences that shine through their synth and percussion work.
Think a messier, angrier and more chaotic version of Aiming For Enrike with a good dose of fun and self-awareness and you wouldn't be far off from what the Cork lads have constructed here on "ETC".
As the album shoots past its forty minute run-time, things only keep getting more and more kaleidoscopic in terms of stylistical mix and matching, resulting in a listening experience that is bound to keep you entertained and on your toes while still possibly leaving you decently confused throughout about what the feck is going on.
"ETC" won't be for everyone and it definitely feels like it is meant to be that way to begin with; but if the oddities of bigger experimental acts like fellow countrymen Gilla Band or UK act Scalping's flirting with heavy electronica and math-rock float your boat, then you should definetely check out the work of these underground newcomers that are slowly but surely making a decent amount of well-deserved racket for themselves.