GGGOLDDD

About

" Dark, intense rock and electronica married to deeply personal lyrics "

Dutch band GGGOLDDD have always been defiant. Resilient. Maybe stubborn too. And above all, heavy, both in terms of their music and subject matter. The cover art for their 2015 record ‘No Image’ was a plain black square and the album title ; even their name, at that time simply Gold, was pretty much unGoogleable. Then there was their video for ‘Servant’, a montage of “humanity failing” – tortures, shootings, animal cruelty, famine – juxtaposed with cutesy emojis to deliver a jolt of online toxicity. It was so graphic, it was eventually entirely removed from YouTube.

“We were so ‘Fuck You’ back then,” vocalist Milena Eva has said. But it’s a different kind of defiance that informs new album ‘This Shame Should Not Be Mine’. A document of trauma, it addresses the terror of Eva’s rape when she was 19, something she only fully came to terms with during the Covid lockdowns. The album started as a one-off song, originally commissioned for 2020’s online Roadburn Festival, before blossoming into a full record that marries heavy and aggressive music with haunting, piercing vocals and soft melodies. It highlights the pain and agony, as well as the triumph, of the female experience; “cathartic” is how Eva puts it. 

Even the cover, featuring Eva dressed as a medieval knight, conveys potent metaphors about boundaries, physical contact, and carrying around a burden. “This is my story,” she says, “but also our most intimate record yet.” Shattering yet hopeful, intense yet healing, ‘This Shame Should Not Be Mine’ is a powerful statement and one of this year’s most vulnerable, compelling listens.

Photo : MAKO Photography