GosT is actually a one-man project of musician James Lollar. Having experience of various metal and hardcore bands, he decided to make his own act by playing synthwave. It was the year 2013 when he started all that and since now, he does everything on his own and has many releases on his back catalogue. Specifically, there are four more full-length albums, five EPs, three singles and one split. That’s a lot of stuff for a six-year course until now.
But here it seems that things are changing, as there is a new member on board (judging by the absolutely ridiculous promo photographs) and Lollar decides to visit his metal past. Hearing excerpts of his previous works, it seems that he’s trying different things in his music. Of course, he hasn’t changed drastically the sound of the band, synthwave is still the center filled with electronic elements and vocals in a post-punk style.
On top of that, there are some black metal parts added. Not only in vocals, but also with very fast blast beats. It would be nicer though if the drums didn’t sound so plastic and fake, as they are all electronic and not played by a physical person. As a result, they reach hyper speeds with absolutely no meaning at all. Nevertheless, this is just a very small part of “Valediction”, as the biggest part follows the course that Lollar took from the beginning. Or so I think, I didn’t hear everything he’s done before. Ten tracks and forty minutes later, I can’t say that I gained anything from this release. Fans of synthwave should check this out. The rest, please walk on by.
