We may be a year on from the hidden gem of Defamator, but the new Chloe Gallardo-featuring project Not Your God has fuel in the tank. An unnerving angle is taken, a higher being present and worked through as an obstacle for soulful clarity, Grief and Calamity is quite the piece of work. Herr God, Not Your God, some numbers in its title, whatever the case, whatever name the band has pulled out of the blue, this is strong work. It is of the miserable variety, of the deeply-held depressions of the real world. Their suffering is our continuation and the noise rock patches heard throughout this EP are charming, if a bit unsettling. But such is the point of Grief and Calamity, a bold piece of work from unsung heroes of the alternate genre at its gloomy best.
With opener jesus candle in the liquor store there are the everyday fascinations, ripped from reality and placed as a part of some higher understanding. Those moments where we reflect through an example or image are set in motion not by the actions of the day but by the locations. It is a chilling observation to be made, and how everyday experiences can be turned into horrific faults or moments to learn from, to grow and heal in the face of the dark abyss, is the forte of Grief and Calamity. Its instrumental successes are just as important here as the nervy and often well-distorted and grumbling vocal performances.
The end of the year is all about catching up on these releases. Moments which were brought to our attention but escaped through some crack in the brain. Round up your lost pitches and find them again. Grief and Calamity is one well worth seeking out because it has the cool grooves of an always daring musical troupe. From the darkness of its opening track to the soft acoustics and police sirens of dental laboratory, there is a lush yet jagged style to Herr God which you can get elsewhere, but not in this quality. Gallardo brings the weight of disastrous self-doubt to the table on these tracks, a momentum and feeling most listening in will have felt, or are going to feel somewhere down the line. Grief and Calamity is not a showcase of preparing you for it or a comforting hand, but more a warning of its inevitability.
Those notes of touching, awakened experiences continue with instrumental volatility at their heart. The likes of 222 are frankly astonishing when it comes to the excess and percussion skills Herr God has in store. Bold and ambitious are the words to slap Herr God with. Watch them closely as they pull these brilliant instrumental slices from the blue, the vagueness of their meaning means it can apply to all. These are not broad notions though but specifics of a heartbreaking momentum. Chilling from start to finish yet with effectiveness to it all, an urgency which holds out hope that those listening in will not suffer the same experiences. It may feel tough to chew on this heaviness, but with Herr Godd and the quality musicianship they provide here, the slow crawl to tough times ahead feels all the more comfortable.
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