Bristol newcomers GNASCH formed out of an “eagerness to keep the music primitive and underdeveloped.” They’ve honed a distinctive brand of doom and sludge meets black and death metal, which they describe as “low, slow and woe.”
GNASCH was formed last year by vocalist Russell Barron and guitarist Will Turner Duffin. The duo met when they both worked with a band called Warrior Pope and bonded over a shared love for Nottingham band Iron Monkey. And they set about putting a band together by bringing drummer Sam Smith and fellow former Warrior Pope bassist Leon Bennett on board.
The quartet describe themselves as “four ‘orrible cunts from Bristol,” chose a band name they “thought sounded suitable” and use an intentional misspelling of a childhood Beano influence. After a few jam sessions, they created their debut EP Spite At The End Of The Tunnel, which was released in July.
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Spite At The End Of The Tunnel kicks off with a piercing noise (beware loud headphone users!), which gives way to a low plodding riff and slightly terrifying growls in the intro to DENIED. The riff kicks on alongside cymbal-heavy drums, then gets a whole lot more vicious with wild vocals taking over alongside a delicious riff.
That continues for a long time before the vocals give way to a bouncy riff, which drops into more intense vocals and a fuzzy riff. A low riff is then answered by cool high notes as the intensity builds and drops into a powerful final smash of heavy vocals, fuzzy guitars and crashing cymbals. Give it a listen here:
Next is UNUNION, which begins with a moody intro of sludgy guitars that continue under Russell’s threatening growls. The pace picks up slightly with a cool stabbing riff under an extended ‘chorus’ that repeats the lines “Loss after loss, Death after death.” A cool high-pitched guitar lick kicks in as the chugging chords continue with occasional growls, which drop into more intense repeats of the chorus vocals.
That’s followed by the seven-minute DEPENDANT, which sees electronic noise (again, headphone users, ouchy!) joined by a cool jaunty riff. That kicks into a delicious intro, which drops into big doomy guitars and drums under savage growled vocals. Higher-pitched, unusual-sounding guitar chords give you a really uneasy feeling.
That eventually gives way to descending guitar chords that are joined by doomy drums and a terrifying wild scream. The pace picks up a little as it descends into darkness then a gradually descending chunky riff supports continuing vicious vocals, a musical effect that gives the sense of the track slowly grinding to a halt, which I really like. Check it out in the stream below:
Next is TREACHEROUS, which opens with piercing guitar noise and a throaty growl then drawn-out guitars and rolling drums under another heinous scream. Layered piercing guitars are a real assault on the senses alongside slow drums and throaty vocals. The slower plodding guitars return, as do the high-pitched guitars, before chunky guitar chords increase the intensity. And the cool high-pitched guitars return before a vicious conclusion.
The EP concludes with the moody HELLWISHER, which starts with fuzzy guitars and crashing cymbals that continue under gruff growls. The guitars and drums intensify under increasingly wild cries of “Die” before dropping into a brooding verse that brings the EP to a close.
On the EP, Russell told us: “We had an unexpected amount of streaming plays and downloads within the first month, most likely from features on various websites that were extremely positive about our music in an appropriately negative fashion.
“The EP is very primitive in the sense that we had four jams and whacked it out without giving much thought to songwriting and performance. It has been described as doom/sludge, but my vocal style is more influenced by death and black metal, which gives it an even filthier edge, and combined with the music seems to give people the appropriate vibes of desolation and oppression that we wanted to convey.
Gnasch’s music is inspired by the aforementioned Iron Monkey, as well as the likes of Leechmilk, Grief, Blut Aus Nord, Leviathan, Mortician, Autopsy.
And on what inspires them to write music, Russell tells us: “As mentioned, musically we bonded over an interest in Iron Monkey and felt the urge to write some disgusting music together within that realm. Lyrically, SATEOTT is loosely a concept album. Each song details painful personal experiences that I went through since 2019 onwards. The EP closer Hellwisher sums up how I felt after an arduous time and is a reference to the EP title after going through all of that.”
There’s plenty more to come from GNASCH, who plan to write new music to follow their debut EP fairly quickly. They’re also on the lookout for gigs, so any doom, sludge or black metal bands and promoters out there, get in touch!
You can follow GNASCH on Facebook, and check out their music on Spotify and Bandcamp.
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