GOST
THE BLACK HEART, LONDON
Synthwave’s most extreme exponent raises the rafters
under blood-red lights, a cloaked, Grim reaper-like figure appears, holding a skull aloft in gloved hands. The subtle, wordless theatrics have the desired effect, setting up for a night of ghoulish synthwave and delighting a crowd who like a hefty dollop of horror and hyper-aggressive metal with their electronica. Michigan producer GosT draws from the same bedrock of 80s sci-fi and John Carpenter-drenched dystopia as peers Carpenter Brut, Perturbator, Dynatron and Dance With The Dead, but his most recent album, Possessor, has secured his place at the darker, more violent end of the synthwave spectrum.
As he arrives onstage, his face hidden under a black hood, wielding a guitar, the two laptops in front of him represent an unholy altar from which to perform his satanic sonic ritual. Garruth thunders monstrously from the speakers, GosT battering out the riff amid a cold, hostile assault of blastbeats and nihilistic vocals, and a packed room, made up predominantly of metalheads, bellow their approval. It takes a few songs to really get the crowd moving – it is a Monday night after all – but Sigil, a spectral Sisters Of Mercy-indebted anthem, and the truly terrifying Beliar, which revels in a black metal churn heavy enough to exorcise the demons while simultaneously slashing your brain to ribbons, incites simultaneous bouts of frenzied dancing and moshing. As the gig ends, GosT’s reaper once again raises the skull in the air before the pair retreat into the shadowy underbelly where two dark musical worlds have collided.