Photo by Alex Kiander
You've heard the work of multi-instrumentalist Nichlaus Schubert in the form of bright synths as part of indie pop act GGOOLLDD. However, Schubert is getting in the spirit of Halloween season, taking things in a darker direction with the debut album from his goth-rock side project, Blood, entitled Testamental. The 10-track debut mixes cold and warm, with vocals reminiscent of new wave legends like Joy Division and The Smiths, with familiar synth elements of Schubert's main act making sporadic appearances. Ironically, GGOOLLDD originally formed for a one-off Halloween show, and this album sounds like a what-if scenario where the band stayed in the holiday spirit year-round. Conveniently, a party was also the genesis of the project.
“I was kind of shelving this stuff over the past few years, just having a folder on my computer. Just a bunch of darker sounding goth songs, and I didn’t really know what to do with them.” said Schubert. “Then last year, I had an idea to do a goth-themed birthday party. My friend Casey Soyk showed me some darker songs he was working on. We co-produced two songs, and we had this arsenal of songs and went from there.”
While Testamental can feel like the anti-pop alternative, Schubert says the record was built largely out of demos recorded at home, as GGOOLLDD remained somewhat dormant during what was planned to be a big year for the band pre-pandemic. With vocalist Margaret Butler and bassist Nick Ziemann now residing in Baton Rouge, LA, Schubert suddenly had time between recording and writing trips to experiment with compositions that were sitting on hard drives at home. In fact, he attributes the downtime as a factor in the record's completion.
“To be honest, I don’t think I would have been able to finish this record without this whole situation going on” said Schubert. “Obviously, there are more terrible things happening that outweigh my silly little goth album. But I’ve been focusing my time on things that I want to do.”
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Testamental is out today via Cleopatra Records, and you can check it out on all major streaming services.
