Since their formation from South Wales in 2008, Cardiff-based group Godsticks have always been on the curriculum by taking heavy progressive metal with an alternative rock value, experiment with a dosage of powerful guitar work, vocal work, intense drumming, and always seeing what the next adventure will lead for them. Six albums in the can, going from 2010 to 2023, they taking the next logical step for them with their seventh album from Kscope entitled VOiD.
Yes, there are the influences of Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, and Soundgarden, but you can’t deny the power and the forces in what lies ahead by going into the void. The themes deal with disillusionment, isolation, introspection, rigidity, and Darran’s point of view to detail the stories with an introspective point of view. With a new line-up which includes bassist Francis George, they go for the jugular.
Going as a trio, various line-up changes, and now as a quartet, its time to see whether Godsticks have got the goods or not. The challenging bass drum kick behind the opening track ‘M.I.A.’ feels like a throttling metallic riff with its retreat from the real world when it came to a screeching halt six years ago during the pandemic. You feel as if you’re trapped in your own house, your own apartment as if you want to be free from everything.
There’s something rising on the arrangements with its heavy groove between Bushell’s guitar work between the rhythm and lead sections. He lays down the power and give Price a chance when to come in by raising hell and sending up expanded messages in this morse code style before Darran pours his heart in his vocal styles before switching gears in this futuristic void for the ‘Hold Back’ to begin.
Right there, the militant arrangements are exploding front and centre, not knowing when the alarm clock will go off at any second with its dynamics and Tool-like power house, mixed in with elements of the Death Magnetic-era from Metallica. Meanwhile on ‘Watch it Burn’, all hell is breaking loose for the fires to erupt at any second.
With its majestic, turned nightmarish dystopian landscape which speaks of the BioShock universe, you can tell the guitars are setting up the downfall of a city which is on the brink of collapse as Darran narrates the scenery with the emperor inside his war room, not knowing his insanity has made him his own worst enemy for the damage he has created.
‘Master of a Plan’ is a calm after the storm throughout the first three tracks where we see Godsticks going into this New Wave/Post-Punk sound that speaks of the late ‘70s, early ‘80s, but adding in that Smashing Pumpkins and This Mortal Coil ascension which comes out of nowhere. When I say Smashing Pumpkins, I mean the Siamese Dream-era, mixed in with a heavier orientation of ‘Sixteen Days / Gathering Dust’ thrown into the middle of the crossover.
That’s how true the source material can be. ‘Torn Again’, the album’s heaviest turned classical motif, is where the intense fire starts to increase where we witness someone, going on the brink of collapse, having a mental breakdown, and channeling the Tool-like structure from the Undertow sessions, continuing where ‘Sober’ had left off.
With the arrangements in toe, the guitars spread across the wildfire-like extension, blaring out these heavy notes, massive wah-wah pedals, virtuosic lead sections, and tidal-waving effects coming from the tidal-waving that’s about to happen at any second. But what’s this? Is Godsticks going back into the alternative rock route once more? Oh, hell yeah!
Hearing ‘Can’t Withstand’, you feel the metallic turned electronic futuristic wonders in this skateboarding ride with dangerous results. It crashes and erupts with more chaotic results in a way the rhythm section heads for the dooming downfall that is waiting to happen before more rumbling volcanic riffs come bursting out with lava rock for the ‘Ruthless Coward’ coming throughout the land and causing a havoc to ruin the moment for everybody in the small little town the survivors try to escape from the dystopian city they went through.
Nearing the finish line we have the two-parter ‘Talking Through Windows’, a vision of the mental patient reflecting all of the nightmares, the voices in his head, and his own little world reflecting what has happened. The first part has this narrative reflection with its clock-ticking perfection, then it fires all cylinders for the rhythm section to go into the Crimson-like powerhouse that speaks of THRAK.
Its one of the heaviest sequences which jumps out of nowhere before ending in the mournful post-rock drive down the highway with unknown results on ‘Hope is Burning’. That said, VOiD is Godsticks movie inside your head, building up challenges, understanding the person’s help is out of the question as he becomes his own worst enemy.
It may not be everyone’s cup of tea per se, but it takes bravery for what Godsticks has endured to find the subject matter hard to understand. However, you can’t deny the dark structures and emotional struggles that is on VOiD. The light may be hard to get through, but it is right in your face and getting through the end to start a brand new beginning in your life.
