Rating: 8/10
By Shirin Hodgson-Watt
Around a year ago, I received an email from a brand new band about to play their debut gig, enquiring as to whether I might be able to photograph them at said show. To be fair, they were set to support Cornish titans King Creature, and so it wasn’t much of a leap to assume that I might already have been planning a little camera pestering, but it’s still always nice to be asked. They had a couple of rehearsal videos on Facebook, and I’ll admit that I rapidly switched from mild curiosity to fully piqued; for a band yet to hit a stage, to be so drum-tight and cohesive was more than a touch striking.
Their performance at St Austell Brewery that evening (and later at the same venue when they opened for The Sum Of) lived up to the promise of those little clips. Yes, there was room for them to blossom into a more cocksure unit, as might be expected (which may yet be already happening, as I’ve failed to catch a show since, sadly), but the solid blasts of choppy, technically impressive metal that this EP now showcases were clearly taking prodigious shape even then.
‘Monument of One’ packs a powerful groove, shifting pace seamlessly across the five tracks. There’s nothing uncontrolled here, this is sharp and complex musically, always blushingly well endowed melodically, with atmospheric middle eastern undertones threaded through here and there to add flashes of mood and colour to the dark, looming storm that envelops the crushing slabs of passionate, emotionally wracked confessionals contained within.
Punchy and precise, with a blistering buzzsaw bite, in Godstone Cornwall delivers a new devilishly meticulous weapon to its already impressive musical armoury. Shiny and muscled like a full metal thoroughbred, sweat glinting on its sleek steely coat, nostrils flaring (stay with me here…) Godstone know exactly what they’re doing and how to do it. ‘Monument of One’ is a startling first release, and raises the bar sky high for what comes next.
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