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Death By Gong – Desalator
Album | 20/09/2024 | Crazysane Records
51:31/42:51 | 8 tracks | 12“ Vinyl + 7“ Vinyl/CD/Digital
Heavy Shoegaze / Alternative Rock
Berlin, Germany
Fragile And Determined
The times we live in are coined by extreme points. It seems like the ditches between 1 and 0, between black and white, yes and no have not been wider ever before. Between hardened fronts, the air to breathe becomes scarce, and the feeling of security may vanish. But isn’t human life all about the great variety that is spread all over the canvas instead of the frames? Well, this album on hand, Death By Gong’s debut record Descalator is a great display of the high of in-betweenness and uncertainty. Is the sound heavy or vulnerable? Yes! Does it represent emotionality or numbness? Yes! Is it about descaling or de-escalating? Yes! Is it crazy or sane? Yes! It may or may not have been the musicians‘ intention, but here is a beautiful hommage to all the grey tones between white and black.
Per Nebula Ad Fortitudo
Descalator is available on vinyl, CD, as a download, or for streaming. In any case, it begins with the Heavy Shoegaze banger Troy Toy whose energy reaches into the following track Until It Breaks. Here, we experience our first Noise breakdown before the fog clears up and the anthemic Alternative Rock song Heavy Hair marks the first climactic moment.
Next up, the longtrack Angel Cake tastes like hope and awakening, and after this hazy Shoegaze monster, Everything Is Given contains the album’s second breakdown. In an unexpected twist, upbeat New Wave collapses into massive Grunge and Noise, before a bitter internal struggle is fought in the dark but psychedelic track Negativity. This song alone is so versatile, it could represent majority of the album, and it is defintely the longplayer’s second climax.
The circular movement has reached the phase of awakening again, but this time it appears much more confident when Death By Gong spread new hope with the title track. It is a solid, empowering, and content sound that we experience in Descalator. And after a short dark coda, the mist returns. As salutogenetic the music sounds, the final track Noise Floor is a wish for nubmness, for an end to all crushing pain.
Credits
Music, lyrics and performance by Jobst M. Feit, Chris Breuer, and Peter Voigtmann
Recorded by Peter Voigtmann at Die Mühle, Gyhum
Mixed and mastered by Joe Joaquin at Custom Mojo MK III, Ulm
Artwork and graphic design by Fabian Bremer
Promo materials by courtesy of Crazysane Records
The End?
Well, Noise Floor is the album’s ending if you listen to the CD or one of the digital versions. But those who own a vinyl copy of Descalator will find a special treat which is the 7“ that contains two more songs: Distant and In Despair. Here, the journey continues, and the way it goes on is by some of the heaviest, gloomiest, and most thrilling tunes of the whole album. These bonus tracks are a great continuation to this amazing narrative.
Descalator is an overwhelming melting pot of emotions, sounds, images, words, and noises. Death By Gong play the soundtrack of a deep crisis and thereby create a sonic rollercoaster ride that goes from giddy heights over thick mists to close-to-rock-bottom darkness and back,
9/10 Mangoes
We will dance again
Mia Schem
