EP REVIEW: Digital Red – .gif from god
Given the boundless energy they exhibited on their excellent 2019 debut full-length approximation_of_a_human, it is somewhat surprising that .GIF FROM GOD have taken this long to follow it up. Then again, one listen to the Richmond-based math/grind/screamo outfit’s new EP Digital Red and it seems that if anything they just needed that long to get all their ideas into an order that made even the slightest bit of sense. This record throws so much at you in just 18 minutes, but provided you like it when metallic hardcore and its adjacent genres are pushed to their outermost extremes you should get ready to catch as much as you possibly can.
It is essential that Digital Red’s runtime is as tight as it is, as it lends itself to multiple listens even within the space of an hour to give the listener at least half a chance of getting to grips with everything that’s going on here. Even by the standards of some of the most sonically intense stuff we’ve had in this scene lately, this EP is a lot. Bits of grindcore, noise, mathcore, nu-core, screamo, even a touch of 00s deathcore – all these and more are twisted into a singular vicious concoction that places .GIF FROM GOD on a path that may occasionally cross over with the likes of VEIN.FM or PUPIL SLICER, for example, but ultimately holds true to the identity of this band and no-one else.
Held together by overarching themes of dread and despair, it is impossible to miss the sense of angst and anxiety running through Digital Red, even if you may struggle to decipher many of the bleak and poetic lyrics as they are delivered via a bracing combination of tortured screams and forceful gutturals. The freneticism of the music makes it impossible for one’s mind to settle whilst listening, with manic time signature changes and the panicked and dissonant work of the guitarists in particular lending a palpitating sense of discomfort and unpredictability to proceedings. It is deeply telling for example that even fourth track youth medium child psychic – the shortest on the record and essentially an interlude – remains highly agitated, with bubbling synths, throbbing bass and various noise, buzzes and effects showing that even when .GIF FROM GOD put their sharpest weapons down they can still feel genuinely threatening.
And that’s the main takeaway and success of Digital Red. This isn’t an EP where one can spend too much time zeroing in on individual tracks or moments; it’s a far more fully-rounded experience than that, one that you just kind of throw yourself into and let spin your head all over the place. To read that as a negative would be a mistake though; there is a twisted, violent sense of enjoyment one can find in a record like this, and the fact that .GIF FROM GOD are sensible enough to confine the whirlwind to such a short runtime makes it so much easier to keep coming back for its heart-racing thrills time and time again.
Rating: 8/10
Digital Red is set for release on March 3rd via Prosthetic Records.
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