‘Flying over the sun’

Go!Zilla  – ‘Sinking In Your Sea’ (Black Candy(IT), Beast Records(FR), Lolipop Records(USA), Gnar Tapes(USA), Algo Records(Chile))

https://gozilla.bandcamp.com/album/sinking-in-your-sea

Sometimes, when you think you have heard it all, someone or something comes along that surprises you. The truth is there is not that much more to listen that has not been heard before. It is in the way things are presented that might still cause some surprise. Such is the case with this overcharged Italian crew Go!Zilla.

I stumbled upon Go!Zilla by chance at a gig in Sabotage Club, Lisbon. The evening in question was also the same that brought Mark Lanegan to Portugal’s capital to a very disappointing show. Afterwards, I went for that one last drink before going home. Lo and behold, I did not know what was in store for me.

As soon as the three Firenze sonic riders launched into their set, I thought ‘This sounds like Mudhoney in a perpetual bad trip’ but somehow, these guys had a certain aura of energy and of twisting sounds and coming up with solutions for their songs that made their music original. Their delivery is real, not a blatant imitation of a specific trend or genre.

For me, one song stood out amidst the fuzzed out blasts of distortion, the bad dream motorika like ‘Looking In The Mirror’. After the show, I spoke with the band for a while and this gave me the chance to listen to their new record in advance. Believe me, it is an explosion of a record!

As soon as it starts, high energy ‘Melting’ rhythm thrusts you into the particular world of soft backup vocals that permeate so many of their tracks. A trademark of sorts, the backup singing is essential to this acid like surf sludge band. Soft but heavy when needed, the beat doesn’t let go and title track ‘Sinking In Your Sea’ deepens the sense that this will be a non stop nightmarish groovy record.

‘Looking In The Mirror’, the one track that impressed this humble scribe, does not lose any of its power and it is a bizarre mix of krautrock meets Dick Dale with some haziness thrown in for good measure. ‘Pollution’ keeps the focused rhythm while ‘Hiding Away’ lets you breathe a little only to be bombarded again by ‘I Hate All The Time’ and that is how the record goes until all that is left behind are cities destroyed as Tokyo. The sound of wasteland is what you hear on last song ‘Xilitla’ until they come up for one last bout of destruction.

Not wanting the spoil the fun for anybody, let’s just say this is a juggernaut of a heavy high energy fuzzed out record! 

Go!Zilla might not be inventing the wheel but the Firenze power trio sure come up with new circular ways to get their point across and it is us that sink in their sea.