Kev Rowland Released at the beginning of 2022, this is the final album to feature singer Reverend Jeyzus, who has since been replaced by Chronic Procrastinator , with the rest of the line-up being guitarist Piton, drummer Melissa Rable and bassist Kaptain. I have known Piton for some years now, and have always enjoyed his different bands, and there is something about Ygodeh which is uncompromising, metallic, brutal, electronic, industrial and steampunk, all at the same time. This is music which is twisted, dark and uncompromising, belonging only in the dark places and the shadows and never out in the light. That it is also strangely commercial at times only adds to the feeling of not belonging, and why “Scapegoat” reminds me of Geoff Mann and Twelfth Night is possibly due more to my warped synapses than any intention on the band’s part.

They may have come from a death metal background, and there are still some elements of that in what they are performing, this album has much more of a synth background, with melodies being twisted out of the keyboards, the rhythm section keeping it tight and the guitars coming in and out for effect. Reverend Jeyzus switches between speaking, singing melodically and growling manically as the band perform music for the post-apocalyptic age. Harsh but perfectly in tune with the times, Ygodeh have produced yet another album which is truly worthy of close investigation. With a female singer now onboard it is going to be interesting to see what the future is going to be like for this band, but there is no doubt it will be interesting and uncompromising.

Kev Rowland I’ve been in contact with Piton for about 5 or 6 years now, reviewing both Ygodeh and Sectlinefor, and one thing I have always really enjoyed about his work is his refusal to accept what has happened in the past and to keep reinventing what is going on. Back with their fifth album, Piton (synths, guitars) and vocalist Andre S Cura have reinvented the band and the image. Cura is now Reverend Jeyzus, a mad self-proclaimed prophet of YGODEH turing every live performance into a sermon, while Piton is a sociopathic surgeon who performs live on a home-build guitar made from an old vacuum cleaner and some tent poles found at the side of the road somewhere in Tottenham. They have been joined in their Mad Max post-apocalyptic world by bassist Dan King who goes under the guise of The Kaptain, a former submarine brothel owner who after a mutiny was left drifting around the Atlantic in a rubber dingy with only a bottle of Captain Morgan as company. Having lost his mind, he believes himself to be Captain Morgan and the band bus to be a pirate ship. The line-up is completed with the addition of drummer Morten Fausboll who in real life is of course Melissa Rable, a gender confused, bionic pleasure machine that was found discharged by the side of the road. After recharged, showing incredible, pre-programmed rhythmic capabilities, she was put behind the drums. Got that?

Musically it is very much business as usual, or at least whatever usual business is in the twisted world of these guys. Piton was originally in straight death metal band, and he has taken those influences and combined them with synth and rap to create something which is dark and very, very twisted. Andre is also still as demented as he has been since he started working with Piton in 2012, with gruff death vocals giving way to Eminem-style rap, while musically they try and give voice to the image they have created. In many ways the photos one can find on their wonderful website, is a visual representation of what one can hear through the speakers in that it is a jumble of so many things that just shouldn’t sit together, ever. This is music which is progressive in its truest sense as it pushes through and makes a big mess of everything it touches. There are times when it comes across as the weirdest underground pop you’ve ever heard, at others it is crunching and dirty, often all at once and there is a feeling of real passion, power and an incredible sense of being.

I am convinced that 99 people out of 100 will think this is awful, but that 1% will find something here which is both majestic and inspiring, taking the work of bands like Art Zoyd and twisting it into something special and different indeed.

Kev Rowland Originally formed in Latvia, these guys are now located in the UK, and this is their second full-length album. Comprised of Piton (Guitars, synthetic sounds, samples programming), Vadozz (drums), Stalker (bass) and Serberus (vocals), they have created something that is really unusual. They describe it as “Synthetic Death Metal for Your Brain!” and that is probably better than anything I could come up with as this is very different indeed. It’s roots are in Death Metal, but add to that a pop sensibility, symphonic and classical touches with electronic overtones and you may start to get close to what this is about. The guitars are often strangely muted in some way, as if Piton is riffing hard but playing behind a gossamer curtain, which just removes the brutal edge. This is experimental in many ways, while also being mainstream in others. It would be interesting to see these guys in concert as I would imagine that brutality is much more to the fore in that environment, but here in the studio they have created something that has definitely caught my attention.

This is available physically through Inverse, or digitally through many sites such as Bandcamp, and this is something that definitely deserves to be heard at the very least. In some ways compelling, and always interesting, this is pushing hard against certain boundaries.