Label: Van Records/Profound Lore Records
Review by Alysha Hayden
GOLD are a post-dark rock band hailing from the Netherlands. “No Image” is their second full-length album. This album visually is interesting in that the band have chosen, like the title suggests, no image for the cover and their band picture has emoticons covering their faces. With nothing to distract you, listening to the nuances of their music is all that is left. I approve. The album opens with “Servant” for which they’ve done a video which can be found here. Warning though, it contains footage from some of humanities worst acts. While there is a reprieve during the guitar solo (cat videos anyone?) it’s a rather impactful set of images they’ve used to go along with the political lyrics of this song. I did find the use of emoticons throughout the video to portray the lyrics a creative way to contrast against the horrible images playing in the background. “The Controller” has a bit of a different sound to the rest of the album. With a very raw guitar that gives off a weathered sound to the recording for most of the track, then just before the 3 minute mark it kicks over to a full band and more polished sound. “And I Know Now” is another track they’ve accompanied with a clip, this time shining a light on the greed of humanity at materialism. The video even got accolades from The New York Times for one of the best videos for 2015 and you can view the clip here. I like GOLD’s artistic approach to this album. This album is a very easy listening with some powerful messages found within the lyrics and music videos the band has chosen to produce.
Review – 70/100
Tracklist
- Servant
- Old Habits
- O.D.I.R
- Shapeless
- Tar and Feather
- The Controller
- The Waves
- And I Know Now
- Don’t
- Taste Me
Line Up
- Milena Eva – Vocals
- Thomas Sciarone – Guitar
- Nick Polak – Guitar
- Kamiel Top – Guitar
- Tim Meijer – Bass
- Igor Wouters – Drummer
Links