GosT: Prince Of Darksynth Commeth
It’s been a while since we’ve heard the gloriously aggressive sounds of GOST. The prince of darksynth has had some time to evaluate his work, the world and what the creeping doom around us means on both a global and personal level. We caught up about writing hyperfocus on new record Prophecy, recentering and the end of the world.
“It’s hard to get a gauge on the on the album before this,” he notes about previous record Rites Of Love And Reverance, “because it was during the pandemic, so everything was just weird. But even before that, I was so conscious of what people are saying.”
Being creative is a hard line to walk from a career perspective. On the one hand, you have to read the room on what people want, but on the other, you have to create what feels right. GOST spent some time contemplating exactly what he wanted to make going forward and what exactly he was making. “That’s kind of what I wanted to do with the whole record. Now I did write the vocal track first. So that’s kind of where the record was going. And then after I got through with those, I took a step back and was like, ‘okay, maybe I should write some GOST stuff as well’.”
The record obviously feels like the culmination of the best parts of all his previous works, but that’s mainly due to personal growth and becoming comfortable with GOST being its own thing. “I kind of like lost sight that I kind of created this thing of my own,” he reflects. “I was like, trying to branch out. I had a moment right before I started writing this record, it was like, ‘you already kind of have a thing, like, why are you trying to always create something else completely new?’ So, I just kind of came back full circle on this one. And it was definitely conscious of what people were saying, negative or tough comments and just kind of becoming secure in the fact that I have my own little piece of the music world or whatever, that nobody else does.”
It’s exciting to hear this confidence in what GOST is, and that unique sound. With his melding of new wave gothic within the black metal and industrial styles, it’s an extreme adjacent to synthwave that no one else is doing. The resulting record in Prophecy has hard edged vocals, swelling synths and industrial soundscapes, all locked together seamlessly. “I was listening to a lot of EDM and industrial for sure. When I was writing this, like the beginning of Death In Bloom is like almost an ode to a MINISTY song – just the really dry snare with like the dirty guitar riff. I played in hardcore bands for so long and kind of almost gets that edge to it just naturally when I write on the guitar. That’s probably one of my favourite songs; the transitions and everything really turned out the way I wanted.”
“I usually write the albums from start to finish and that basically stays in that order. And it really works. But yeah, so I guess it kind of just happens naturally. Like, with my mood as I’m writing the album, it’s like, always want to start off with like, you know, something kind of heavy. The ebb and flow kind of just worked on this one. I didn’t plan it.”
There’s been some changes for GOST in recent history. Through the pandemic that we’ve all experienced, to more personal issues, this record has been made with a clearer head in terms of sobriety. “I’m definitely a better songwriter, clear headed. I’ve done it before. I’ve had like, moments of sobriety like in the past, and I’m definitely better. It’s just I don’t know, I guess things in general are just a little more boring than alcohol. But, I mean, I’m definitely like more proficient, I work better. Back when I was writing drunk, sometimes it would be like, I would forget to save or, you know, I would lose hours of work because I was drunk.”
But GOST’s perfect obsession with his work results in a streamlining of ideas when inspiration hits. You can’t allow time constraints like setting up your gear to get in the way of the light bulb moments. “If there’s a guitar, it’s real. Trying to think if I did anything else, I probably used like the microkorg for a few of the arpeggios. But I’m mainly in the box. That’s just how I’ve always worked. And I’m super comfortable with it. I mean, after being in bands for so long, it just having everything consolidated, like that just feels like the best. It’s just the easiest workflow.”
When it comes to the finished record, there’s clearly this demonic edge to Prophecy. That’s not uncommon for GOST, but the theme is much more concentrated this time. “I don’t know how it is in the UK right now. But here – and I don’t really have any problems with religion as long as people leave me alone about it – but people are starting to get all like almost Satanic Panic here again. You know, like the Religious Right? It’s like, everything that’s different is wrong. And it’s kind of feeling like I did when I was like a young child as far as like people really getting superstitious again. And so, yeah, that was kind of based around like a response to all that and the Christian Armageddon.”
Prophecy is out now via Metal Blade Records.
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