Album
Type:
Full Length
Date
Released:
July 11, 2017
Label: Horror Pain
Gore Death (Digital) &
Independent
(CD)
God Root have managed to craft one of
the most ambitious, progressive, and emotionally harrowing offerings of 2017. The cosmic journey of “Salt and Rot” is one
that will leave you shaken to your fleeting, human core.
“Salt
and Rot” CD//DD track listing
1.
Reclamation
2.
From Hounds to Silent Skies
3.
The Peak is Our Threshold
4.
Conscious Disease
The
Review
Deep
time is one of those concepts I return to over and over again, hovering between
meditation and obsession. In short, deep
time (or geologic time) is the scale with which we measure planetary, galactic,
or universal history. It’s the point at
which humanity becomes a fraction of an instant, where the movement of tectonic
plates becomes the respiration of the Earth, where the lifetimes of stars and
their clustered masses indicate the inevitable decay of those things we view as
eternal. This type of timeframe literally
exists outside human understanding, and breaks down into various
metaphors. Two years, for instance, is
infinitesimally small – a fraction of a fraction of a second to a planetary
consciousness. Yet in human reckoning,
empires collapse, dynasties ascend, species go extinct. And, for God Root, in a brief two year span, they’ve
managed to follow up an impressive debut with a masterful LP that balances
human struggle with transcendent melodies.
“Salt and Rot” is a shamanic expedition into the heart of entropy itself, a
pitch black encapsulation of universal decay, a record written in the altered
consciousness of deep time.
Like
their self-titled first release, “Salt
and Rot” opens with a nearly instrumental piece: “Reclamation”. Between the
tribal drumming and monastic chants, the track begins like an ascent from
primordial tidal pools. Yet with Jordan
Stiff’s electronic manipulations and feedback, timeframe becomes fuzzy – harsh
noise melds the prehistoric and apocalyptic while the beat crawls toward
dissolution. “From Hounds to Silent Skies” refocuses the collective around a
churning sludge riff. The tremolo lead
is a chilling counterpoint to the sonic and emotional heft that bursts from the
speakers. This ineffable sorrow is by
design: as part of a project dubbed “Let Go”, God Root’s friends and family
entered the studio to contribute their most personal thoughts and memories,
which were manipulated to preserve anonymity.
These ghostly echoes through “From
Hounds to Silent Skies” transform the song into an exorcism rite. Ross Bradley’s repeated bass figures
highlight the unbearable tension and chaotic tightening of Grabosky’s drum
fills, culminating in complete tonal collapse.
God
Root gives their nameless vocal revenants and feedback free reign
before a reprise that, with its clear lead harmonies, is triumphant and
transcendent.
“The Peak is Our Threshold”
is
a noisy, textural freak out that recalls Wayne Bell & Tobe Hooper’s “Texas
Simply
and without reservation, “Salt and Rot”
is one of the best records I’ve heard this year, and a uniquely disorienting
listen. With its balance of inhuman
tones and ritual chant, it feels simultaneously outside of history and utterly
indebted to it. Packing such epic arrangements
into a 33 minute record feels impossible, as lesser acts have failed to pack
similar ambitions into double disc efforts.
This paradox got me back to that concept of deep time. For some reason, the writers and artists who
have captured its essence are masters of economy: H.P. Lovecraft, Ursula K. Le
Guin, and the musical mystics of God Root. They have managed to craft one of the most
ambitious, progressive, and emotionally harrowing offerings of 2017 and left me
craving their next revelation. God Root
will be touring the US
