We’re geared up to talk to the band about their fantastic new EP that’s coming out April 26, entitled ‘The Path Of Destruction’ and were given a run through – here’s what the guys had to say about their forthcoming release.
We’ll kick this off with a summing up of the whole EP, what did Godeth want to achieve with this EP? What was the vibe?
Guitarist Dylan starts us off. “Just progressing on what we did on the last EP, because I’m being honest, in hindsight, it wasn’t our finest work. I feel like we’d just come out of Covid before we’d get something done, but we re-did a lot of songs which didn’t really show our musicianship I don’t think.”
Drummer Danny clarifies, “Not that we rushed into the last EP because we didn’t but it was like you said just after Covid we wanted to show that yes we’re still here we’re still doing stuff and I think especially with the addition of Miles on vocals it’s definitely made a massive difference to the sound.”
Is this also sort of showcasing this new lineup as well because it does feel like a leap forward when we listen to it. The production in particular is really good, who’s responsible for that?
“That is Adam Gadsby,” says Dylan, “Yeah, really great guy, and he’s just such a good producer, he helped push us to the next level.”
Danny continues “Yeah, and I think with a lot of producers you can get them where they kind of find their own style that they’re recording, if that makes sense, they try and make you record to that, whereas Adam was like, what do you want it to sound like? Straight away. We gave him the ideas. He did have some ideas, he had more than a few, and a lot of it was a case of, we’ll try this, if it doesn’t work, we’ll change it, cool. He basically said, “It’s your EP at the end of the day, if I do something and you don’t like it, tell me, I will change it, sound.”
We agree the right way is to do what’s best for the song. Now we turn our attention to this track-by-track guide. Track one is ‘Test My Resolve.’ Which is very hardcore sounding. You’ve opened with your hardcore influences booming on that one. So, what was the thinking behind that track as an opener?
Vocalist Miles takes this one, “Well, as an opener in particular, we wanted it to be impactful. The whole EP, we were saying before that this is my first project with Godeth properly, apart from ‘Scald,’ which we did before and ‘Solace.’ To be powerful and impactful I wanted to try and show that I’m putting as much effort into it as possible and I like to think deeply. I always kind of go by a motto of be direct but ambiguous, like say stuff that hooks but don’t be too obvious about it, if that makes sense, you know, so like say stuff that hooks but then make somebody go, what’s he saying there?
Danny states, “The start of the EP we wanted to start with a statement of intent.”
Miles agrees, “That’s kinda what the song’s about as well? I guess that worked very well, didn’t it?”
Danny confirms,” Yeah, and we knew when we were writing it, like, this is very hardcore, because it’s short, in your face, makes a good opener for an EP. Rather than starting it off with like a six-minute song or something like that.”
That brings us neatly onto the fine line between what you use to open your EP with on record and the lead single. And the lead single’s the next track, ‘Coup de Grace.’ That is your first single. Fast, aggressive with real blast beats in there.
Danny smiles, “Which I’m very proud of, because when we first wrote that song, he hated them” (points at Dylan).
Dylan interjects, “That song was the song that we first wrote with our old singer, and I feel like with him the blast beats didn’t work, but since Miles has joined, it fucking makes it sound better.”
Danny continues, “It was one of those songs that when we first wrote it, we’d have it in the set at gigs, and then we’d always play it by ear because we weren’t all 100% with it, we’d see what the sounds like on the first song, and then it was usually me or you would just give it a go and if the sound wasn’t good we wouldn’t play it and it very nearly got scratched before.”
Dylan agrees “Yeah, because of this or the changeover of singers we had to decide what songs do we keep, what songs do we sort of get rid of and on ‘Coup De Grace’ Luke suggests, “No, it’s a really good song. Let’s keep it.” and I wrote all the instrumentals for it. I was like, well, it’s cut in half see what happens. They just made it so much better, so I’ve got rid of the fat.”
We definitely think that sometimes a lot of bands could learn from that, being lean about what you do.
“Yeah, like I say,” Danny throws back,” it very nearly got dropped. And then we were, like you said, working through songs that we’d had on the back burner. And we were like, yeah, we’ll give this one a go, if it works, it works, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. And as soon as we played it, we were all ah, this works!”
We opine that It’s always the ones you least expect that end up becoming your lead tracks in our experience.
So, staying on this sort of super aggressive vibe, Cartilage is up next, which has this almost blackened death vibe, especially vocally on Cartilage the vocals are really striking. What was your thinking behind that one?
Miles, over to you, “Well, it was interesting when you said about genres and how I like to mix genres and how there’s a lot of influence from different genres that, even in the bands that I listen to, I’ve noticed that throughout my life, a lot of the bands I listen to are kind of genre melders themselves, you know? I like that, and I like what we were talking about before, not being too long on a track, but not staying too long on a riff or something, just moving throughout the song.”
We agree you’ve got to keep them guessing. Which brings us onto ‘Solace’. Vocally, we’d say it’s very reminiscent of the barked bits of Fear Factory records like ‘Linchpin’ or, the other band that sprung to mind was Prong. So, the hardcore vibes are creeping back in after the blackened death vibe on the previous track.
Miles notes, “It’s interesting because I didn’t write lyrics on ‘Solace,’ I got them pre-released.
Dylan takes up, “That was like the first song I ever wrote for the band, and we played it loads to our old singer, but he was never ready to record it.”
Danny agrees,” Yeah it was always a good song that went down well but I think having Miles on it has just taken it up a whole other level.”
“One of the things you got me to learn, wasn’t it?” Miles remembers, “I remember there was a moment here thinking like our second rehearsal I had with you or something where I was like do you want me to put some umph into it or something do you remember that?”
Danny smiles,” I remember you asking that, and I could tell that you were kind of nervous to ask. You knew it was an older song that we already had. I could tell you were a bit skeptical of saying, can I change it?”
We think that’s a good lesson for any singer joining a band, is probably if you’ve got the job, they’ve got you because they want your take on it. It’s sometimes good to be bold like that, almost saying, hang on, it’s my job now be confident.
“Well, it’s what I assumed too, I guess it was what I chose.” Miles turns to Dylan,” You were like, yeah, do it.”
Dylan affirms “Miles definitely pushed it to the next level.”
Danny agrees,” Yeah, very much so. In a way it’s kind of potluck that we ended up with you in a way. Like, me and you went to college, we were in a band together when we were in college.
and we’d not seen each other for what, five, four, five years?”
“Six years.” corrects Miles.
“Six years?” continues Danny, “One of my other bands played a gig and you know our singer very well. Yeah, we’re at one of the gigs and we were talking, and you asked if we were looking for a vocalist? You came to audition for us, and I’d already suggested you because we’d had a couple of auditions for vocals before you and we’d said after those two we were not going to jump into it. We’ll do a few auditions. We’ll do everyone that we’ve got on the list and just see, but then as soon as we auditioned you, we were like scrap what we said earlier, let’s go!”
That’s the thing though if you’re gonna be spending a few years with this guy you might as well make sure it’s the right one if the right one does walk in then, grab them!
Danny agrees, “Yeah exactly, which is pretty much what we did. We played a few songs here, especially ‘Scold’ and ‘Solace’ and just straight away when we were rehearsing, we could just see the look on Dylan’s face like you know! this is the one, yeah!”
Dylan nods, “I was ready to give up on the band I thought we’re not going to find anyone. Let’s write a nice post and get all the likes you know.”
“We had a fair bit of time off hadn’t we, just over six months?” Remembers Danny.
This is one of the things that we’ve noticed about bands these days, is that they split up all the time and get back together again, split up, hiatus, reunion. Why not just have some time off? It doesn’t go away and people don’t stop being interested, you just have to make a bit of a racket when you come back.
Danny agrees, “That’s pretty much exactly the kind of mindset that we took. We had a break but because we’ve all been that driven to do it and make the band work and we’ve had a break it’s a 100% kick up the arse kind of thing.”
We definitely think sometimes breaks are good for a band and you come back so much stronger. Next on the track list brings us onto someone who’s not here, bassist James. It’s nice at the beginning of Hatred to hear his bass on its own because the bass tone on this record is fantastic.
Miles grins, “That’s a bit of Gadsby magic there I think you may have even borrowed one of Adam’s basses.”
Danny confirms, “I know Adam had a lot to do with how meaty and in your face that sounds. When we were writing that song, obviously it was Jimmy’s riff from the get-go, and we were trying to figure out different ways to introduce the song. We’re like, well we’ve not had a song that’s just bass on the intro yet, so we just thought, yeah, we’ll just have you on an intro on this one. Yeah, it slaps.”
Another wonderful thing about this track is that it brings in clean vocals, which is another nice light and shade dynamic because when you hear the clean vocals on the intro you think this is going to be the respite track, and it’s not, It goes anthemic and heavy instead!
“We make a joke about that onstage sometimes like, “This is where it gets a bit ballady!”
“Yeah, this next one’s a ballad.” “No, it’s not!” says Miles, “melding genres again.”
Dylan notes, “I feel like there’s a lot of different genres on the EP.”
Danny agrees, “Yeah, there is, because when people say to us, who do you all take influences from? If you ask us all, we’ll all going to give very, very different answers. Miles is very into Knocked Loose, that kind of stuff, hardcore as well, more recently, but all, like, more old death, really.”
Miles agrees “Yeah, like death metal, industrial.”
“Luke’s more kind of modern metalcore. Jimmy’s everything. For me, it’s more punk, like early punk stuff.” continues Danny.
It’s now time to talk about the last track, which is entitled ‘Path of Destruction’ and is the title track. We know it feels like this is a very vocal orientated interview, but this was the intention with the EP wasn’t it, to showcase the new line up. Vocally, the track is feral and when we say feral, we mean that in a terrific way.
Miles smiles knowingly, “That’s exactly the feelings that I wanted to elicit. I take a lot of influence from Whitechapel and Paleface in that kind of respect. I really like that fast, aggressive, rapping sound. But then, once again, if a song has too much of that on it, it’s too much. So, I like to change it up, because it goes quite slow afterwards, comparatively, I guess.”
We love the fact that Miles mentioned Whitechapel there. Because that’s one thing a lot of people don’t pick up on with Whitechapel, the fact that Phil Bozeman is a massive hip-hop fan. He is literally rapping but with guttural technique. It’s actually breaking new ground and we don’t think he gets enough credit for that.
Miles continues,” Yeah, I definitely thought that before. I always think of Whitechapel when someone talks about that sound in vocals.”
It’s definitely a fitting title track as well, because we feel like it’s got a big apocalyptic vibe, which is very apt if you’re going to call something ‘Path of Destruction.’ Were there certain songwriting methods that you made to make it sound big and nasty?
Dylan responds in a very down to earth manner, “I had a lunch break at work, because I worked from home. You can probably hear the Gojira influence on it, you know when something just clicks and you sort of write all the bits and like, yeah, here it is. I think it’s the best song I’ve ever written. I don’t want to sound too big-headed, but I think it’s really good.”
Some of the best ideas do come quick, it’s true.
Danny expands on this, “When we were coming up with the vocal melodies and stuff for that song. We were just doing it, we weren’t even actually rehearsing, we were just doing a writing session at Jimmy’s. And when Miles came up with the vocal lines, we were all just kind of sat there like… (Makes a wow face)
Miles smiles, “I came up with that on the train as well. I was like whispering it into my voice notes app on my phone, like, you know, on the train, literally. Yeah, exactly. That sounds good.”
We think it’s quite key for bands to recognise those lightning in a bottle moments as well, because they don’t come around very often. It’s a wonderful thing to hear Godeth’s sound so well produced because obviously most people’s experience of the band has been seeing them live so now you can hear all the nuances, of which there are many. That took us by surprise because there’s a lot of deeper stuff at play that you don’t necessarily get through a PA speaker, the mix on the EP is well balanced, you can hear everything.
“Yeah, people have said that to me about little bits on certain songs,” Danny notes, “like the little ghost notes that I like, sensitive stuff that I add in, that you can’t necessarily hear live because of the sound and everything. And people said, “Oh I didn’t realise you did this in that bit.”
The drum tone as well is fantastic. We imagine Danny had a good set up.
Danny confirms this, “Yeah, really good live room, good mics. Yeah, I’m known for being a bit anal with drum sound. I know it annoys the crap out of these guys, but I’m like, no, because we’re paying for this doing, I want it to be how I want it.”
Miles backs up his bandmate, “The stakes are higher in your recordings, aren’t they.”
Danny laughs, “The recording process got me the nickname of the one take wonder, which I’m never gonna not mention.”
Overall, the mission statement for this EP seems to have been to highlight the new line up. For Miles, your mission statement seems to have been like, put your stamp on it. So, what’s next, do you think? Are you looking towards an album? Danny says there was a track that they wanted to be on the EP, but they just got it a little bit too late.
“Yeah, that track, ‘Leeches’, which if you saw us at the Key Club recently you will have heard. Going back to Fear Factory, that very much reminds me of ‘Slave Labor’. I’m dancing on the kicks basically.”
They’ve got an amazing EP, they’ve got this new track that might be coming soon, they play live all the time! Thank you Godeth I’d say that this is a wrap.
Do yourselves a favour and go and stream ‘The Path Of Destruction’ by Godeth out on April 26th on all major platforms.
Interview By George Miller – https://linktr.ee/601music
Band Photos C/O: Alex Dixon
