An Inventive and Edgy EP Release from Gillsaw

A new EP release from Gillsaw comes through with an edgy and haunting cinematic undertone in the form of a soundscape that blends elements of metal, industrial, and more to create an atmosphere that you get sucked into and engulfed by.

The Fog Watch EP has plenty of layers to it and each song has a certain kind of mood attached but it all has this thick sort of personality as well which you end up grasping onto pretty early on.

There's something eerily honest about this record. Something about it creeps and crawls under your skin but I mean that in the best way is possible. It does have a purposeful haunt and that is evident and works quite well but, it all comes from an emotional drive, and that comes from honesty.

You can hear a lot of the different emotions and at times, inner thoughts that come spilling out for everyone to soak in but, these are in the form of heavy-handed, at times hard-hitting, and very edgy soundscapes so you have to listen to this record a few times to grab all the lyrical content that's happening.

Tracks like "Thankful" most certainly deliver a soiree of lyrics that come at you, but it also is a song that transforms from something that's vast in its undertone to something that's hardcore and almost aggressive by the end.

All these songs are a little different. They each have something new to bring to the table and it's in the production that these songs actually Thrive.

These tracks are full of amazing glitch work, synth and keys that create entire universes in a single note, and rough-edged and dark overtones that help the thematic aesthetic hit as hard as possible when it needs to.

Again,  there is a lot of vastness and expansive underbelly to these tracks and a lot of it lurks just beneath the surface but shows face here and there.

This record has a fluctuation of intensities. All the intensities come in waves and you have to be ready for them when they come.

You can tell some of this was influenced by some classic industrial stuff but there's also a ton of other influences that come into play, not just including metal.

It's been quite some time since I've heard something that delivers this many layers and can bring together so many but harsh textures in one track let alone a full ep of them.

The EP spans six tracks and by the time you get a few songs in, you begin to expect the unexpected.

Songs like "Rizen" are actually a bit empowering and spirited in their own right. This is a track that features vocal sense and gothic-edged tonalities along with its cinematic and almost theatrical approach.

Again, I think this all comes from the emotion that serves as most of the drive for this record.

There's a lot of frustration, darkness, challenges, and elements that I feel like we all deal with at times but don't know how to articulate into words let alone words and music.

This is one of the first records I've heard, maybe ever, that can articulate emotion into sound in this particular way.

When things are intense and frustrating, they get harsh and heavy.

When things become sullen or sad, they get vast and flowing.

Most songs encompass both of these.

This is the kind of EP you listen to as a whole. Listening to one or two tracks may give you a little idea of what you may expect from the rest of the EP but will not give you anywhere near the full spectrum of what it has to offer as a whole.

This was meant to be listened to from beginning to end and I suggest doing so with headphones on so you can really soak in all those textures and layers I mentioned before.

This is an escape and can be a brutal one at that. That's because of its honesty and raw emotion and drive.

This, to me, as part of what true art is all about. Expressing one's self with no walls built around you.

This is an absolutely perfect example of a record that was created with fewer boundaries than you may be used to so prepare yourself before listening.

Having said that, it's beautifully woven together and built with heart and attention to detail but never loses the persona or character it was created with in the first place. This is possibly the most important aspect of the entire thing.

Take a deep dive into this EP and go all in. If you love heavy-handed industrial emotionally driven, or gritty music that is experimental and doesn't care about conforming to societal genres, this is a thousand percent for you.

A brilliant record. Check it out now and remember where you heard it first.

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