Hear GGGOLDDD Process Trauma With Piercing Post-Metal On "Invisible"

If you're a fan of the types of bands who play Roadburn Festival — the long-running Netherlands mecca for extreme-metal, doom and post-metal groups with experimental tendencies — then you either already know GGGOLDDD or you should. Formerly stylized as GOLD, the Dutch band fronted by vocalist Milena Eva have been kicking around for roughly a decade, shifting between sounds that range from dirt-kickin' rock to dirgy post-metal. Their forthcoming album, This Shame Should Not Be Mine, resides on the latter side of the spectrum, and today we're proud to be premiering the album's emotionally devastating and musically piercing new single, "Invisible," along with its entrancing video. 

In the press information about the record, Eva is very forthright about the fact that this batch of music was directly shaped from the residual trauma and myriad agonies stemming from a sexual assault she experienced years back. "Invisible" is a brave expulsion of the pain she's been trying to push back down inside. Her lyrics are frank and intimate, like she's saying the words out loud for the first time as she sings them. "Coming back has been complicated/It pains me to say I lost my old self/I should not let it define me in any way/But that's easier said than done," she coos during the stark verses, backed only by taut drum machine thumps. 

The chorus is merely the word "invisible," drawn out over screechy digitized strings that rise and fall like gasping breaths during a panic attack. The accompanying video hinges on a similar kind of powerful simplicity, beginning with a close-up of Eva singing and then slowly panning out into the surrounding darkness until her head is but a speck light among the looming shadows. Watch and listen above via YouTube. 

"I've struggled to say out loud that I was hurting," Eva explains. "You can hear this vulnerability in the super intimate electronic parts. And you can hear the overwhelming effect of such trauma in the huge, bombastic choruses."

"The assault happened to me years ago and I kept it a secret out of shame and guilt," she  continues. "Every time I met somebody new or if I felt insecure I got really paranoid. I was so scared people could tell from my face I wasn't doing alright. I tried to keep it all together. Faking my way through everything. Now I know that this was really toxic for my mind and body. It literally made me sick. The shame and the fear really take their toll. I think we should all take a good look at ourselves. How can we make sure that the assault doesn't happen any more? But also, how do we evolve into a world where people can live without shame?"

This Shame Should Not Be Mine is out April 1st via Artoffact Records and pre-orders are available here.