France's tech death masters Gorod haven't exactly been sitting idly by in recent years. A ball-blisteringly intense LP A Maze of Recycled Creeds in 2015 was quickly followed up with the thrashy goodness of their 2017 EP Kiss The Freak.
Not content to rest on any laurel or leave a single solitary face un-melted, Gorod return on October 19th with the dark, yet sublimely slick Aethra, through Overpowered Records. Pre-orders are now available digitally via Amazon, iTunes and Google Play, and in several physical formats via Overpowered Records’ merchandise site.
"I was trying to find a topic that could be culture for everyone," says frontman Julien Deyres, expanding on Gorod's tendency of producing epic concept records. "It was too complicated, the previous topics. I’ve been told that previous times, and I’ve been asked to find something more simple, more clear for anyone. The previous one was super complicated, even for me."
Art by Jeff Grimal
After visiting an exhibit for famed French post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin in Paris and observing a piece on Hina – goddess of the moon in Polynesian culture – Deyres was struck with the inspiration that would lay the groundwork for Aethra.
"I thought wow, why not do something about the moon," he shares. "Everyone has culture about the moon. When you go out at night everyone is watching. The moon is one of the oldest cults in the world and it’s kind of universal. I really love to just spend time going out in the night and staring at the moon. You just let yourself go and you feel like you are nothing. That was the idea when it started."
And while art and history are the foundation of Deyres's epic masterpiece, guitarist and founding member Mathieu Pascal brings the wild tech wizardry with his hybrid style of extreme guitar with scientific precision.
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"This is the natural way for Mathieu to compose music." explains Deyres. "For him this is not technical, this is the way he sees things. It’s kind of natural. The problem is his mastermind, super genius shit for the other musicians is super hard to play well. The thought and purpose is not to make super technical music or to make something complicated. Mathieu is just a songwriter and just likes making songs, but his way of playing it sounds like this. He doesn’t listen to much technical stuff, more into the 70s and the progressive rock of that time like King Crimson. It’s easy listening but very complicated music in the end to play."
Fans hungry to see Gorod living their best selves – blasting faces and snapping necks in a live setting – should be eager to know that the band plans on touring extensively to support Aethra, in North America and Europe.
"Touring, this is really our purpose and this is what we enjoy the most," says Deyres. "We are good friends together and we like to be on the road, so now that we’ve made this album the purpose is touring, touring, touring. Next year we’ll be pretty busy. That is what we’re all looking forward to in the end. Composing is nice, sure. You’re making music, but we’ve already did it and in quite a short time we’ve made many albums and songs. Now we need to tour, we need to play for real because this is what we enjoy the most. All together, when all of us are on stage just hanging out with friends and fans and having a good time, this is what we love to do. We hope we will be busy with touring next year."
The new Gorod album was mixed at Dugout Studio by the outstanding Daniel Bergstrand (Meshuggah, Behemoth, Decapitated, In Flames) and mastered by Lawrence Mackrory at Obey Mastering (Decapitated, Nightrage).
“We decided that I would be in charge only for the recording in my studio, and chose Daniel Bergstrand for the mixing and mastering, as we love his work for decades." Mathieu Pascal adds. "It puts some pressure on me, firstly because I'm used to working alone with the production of GOROD albums. The tracks should be clear and perfect enough to be easily understood and included into the mix the way I imagined. But also, because I still feel like a newbie compared to Bergstrand and I just didn't want to look like an amateur job! Bergstrand and McCrory did an awesome job on this album, the sound is powerful but still natural and balanced.”
Aethra track listing:
1) Wolfsmond
2) Bekhten’s Curse
3) Aethra
4) The Sentry
5) Hina
6) And the Moon Turned Black
7) Chandra and the Maiden
8) Goddess of Dirt
9) Inexorable
10) A Light Unseen
Here are the band's confirmed tour dates so far:
02.11 Hamburg (D) Headcrash
03.11 Hannover (D) Faust
04.11 Berlin (D) Musik & Frieden
05.11 Prague (CZ) Nova Chmelnice
06.11 Vienna (A) Viper Room
07.11 München (D) Feirwerk
08.11 Ljubljana (SLO) Orto Bar
09.11 Retorbido (I) Dagda Club
10.11 Venice (I) Revolver
11.11 Aarau (CH) Kiff
12.11 Grenoble (F) L'Amperage
13.11 Barcelona (E) Upload Club
14.11 Madrid (E) Caracol
15.11 Porto (PO) Hard Club
16.11 Donosti (E) C.C. Larratxo
17.11 Angoulême (F) La Nef
18.11 Paris (F) Petit Bain
19.11 Manchester (UK) Satan's Hollow
20.11 Glasgow (UK) Audio
21.11 Dublin (IRE) Voodoo Lounge
22.11 London (UK) Underworld
23.11 Birmingham (UK) Asylum2
24.11.18 Netherlands Oss @ Groene Engel
25.11 Oberhausen (D) Kulttempel
