Album Review: The By Gods – Goldy

The By Gods fifth album “Goldy” will be released on 21st February 2020, the band’s latest full length was influenced by the tragic events at the Route 91 Festival in Las Vegas. The day before they were due to fly into London to commence the debut UK tour singer and songwriter George Pauley was working as a videographer at the festival when events unfolded around him, he found himself in the middle of the deadliest mass shooting committed by an individual in the history of the United States. Inevitably the tour was cancelled and a prolific process of writing followed as Pauley tried to process what he had witnessed and experienced.

Anyone who experiences a tragedy of that nature is going to be affected by it, and ‘Goldy‘ is a the product of a cathartic writing process, the eleven tracks that appear on the album where whittled down from almost forty that resulted from the songwriting and demos that followed in the wake of the Route 91 Festival. The album’s opening track ‘Black Wave‘ possesses all the grunge influences that you’d expect from The By Gods, but it simultaneously embraces and more melodic and experimental approach than their previous full length. “Goldy” is an album that takes you on an emotional rollercoaster over it’s eleven tracks, from the euphoria of ‘Try So Hard‘, the downbeat ‘Eureka‘ through the almost psychedelic ‘PTO‘ and into the dark grunge of ‘Blurry‘ and ‘Might As Well‘.

The By Gods have not however shifted way from their core influences, the grunge scene is the overriding influence on their sound, but this a more mature sounding album, alongside the grunge influences their is also a side to ‘Goldy‘ that is reminiscent of a more cohesive Radiohead, or maybe an angrier Elbow. This was always going to be difficult album, not just because they were following up “Move On“, for me their strongest album to date, but also the circumstances of the events that informed the writing process. “Goldy” is not as immediate as it’s predecessor, this is a more thoughtful and experimental album that sees The By Gods remaining true to their roots whilst simultaneously striking out in different and unexpected directions.

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