Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.06.2017, Blaðsíða 44

Music
Surf Vampires
Of Doom
Godchilla is fuzzy, dirty and loud
Words: Steindór Grétar Jónsson Photo: Ingi Kristján
Godchilla
Live at Gaukurinn / July 27
The Batcat, Nosferadude and
The Glampire King take to the
streets in the new-
est mu sic v ideo
from surf-sludge
doom metal stal-
warts Godchi l la.
The monster mov-
ie trailer-style vid-
eo for their track
“Dracoola” was di-
rected by guitarist
Hjalti Freyr Rag-
narsson and h is
girlfriend Kristín
Mjöl l Bjarnadót-
tir Johnsen; both
star in the video as
vampiric creatures
of the night.
“I got the idea two years ago,”
says Hjalti, during a hectic three-
way Skype with bassist Birgir
Sigurjón Birgisson. “Two of my
buddies had a 24-hour B-movie
marathon at their apartment. I
don’t remember what film was
playing, but somewhere in the
madness I visualised Dracula—
except he was called
Dracoola—driving
a convertible. Then
I forgot about it,
until we were plan-
ning the video.”
Fog and chaos
The term for God-
chilla’s unique sub-
genre was coined
by Noisey’s metal
editor, Kim Kelly,
w h o c a u g h t t h e
band’s live show in
an abandoned steel
mi l l off-venue at
the Eistnaflug festival. “We wore
robes, barefoot, with shards of
glass all over the place, drowned
in fog and chaos,” says Hjalti.
“Two of our friends from Kælan
Mikla danced around dressed as
ghosts. Kim saw this crazy set
and called it ‘surf sludge.’ It fit.”
Godchilla are known for their
trippy live performances, and for
their new album the visual aspect
is front and centre. Their break-
through 2016 video—for “Bum a
Smoke/Trash a Car”—featured
the band members’ faces covered
in papier-mâché. “We didn’t re-
ally make videos until now,” says
Birgir. “We asked our friends to
do whatever they wanted, so ulti-
mately every track on the album
will have one.”
The album ‘Hy pnopolis’ is
due out in the fall on vinyl. Un-
til then, Godchilla will play the
Norðanpaunk festival and tour
the UK. “We have six gigs in six
days,” says Birgir, “from Brigh-
ton to London and then Hull and
Lincoln. I think these smaller
towns are great for concerts.
There are some impressive bands
on the bill with us. It’s a good
scene out there.”
“It’s really the birthplace of
doom music,” adds Hjalti. “Black
Sabbath are kind of the origina-
tors, then we have Electric Wiz-
ard. We played doom, and then
started playing surf-style stuff
to mix it up, sort of by accident.”
Fuzzy, dirty, loud
Just like the video, the album
has been a long time coming. “It
takes us forever,” sighs Birgir.
“A year and a half of recording,
mixing and mastering, trying to
capture that live element.” Hjalti
adds: “There’s a lot of mud—fuzzy,
dirty and loud. It’s difficult to
catch it nicely on tape.”
However, their website is up
and running, looking like a relic
from the dial-up 90s. It ’s well
worth a visit for aficionados of
classic web design. “I’m no web-
site hacker,” says Birgir. “I drew
all of it in MS Paint and found
some gifs that I liked online.”
As we’re about to wrap up our
Skype chat, drummer Höskul-
dur Eiríksson suddenly joins the
session to confirm the date of
their 29 July show at Gaukurinn
in Reykjavík, where they’ll play
alongside Balagan and Skrattar.
The four-way interaction imme-
diately proves too challenging
for all involved, and it’s cut short
amid laughter. Their music may
spell doom, but these musicians
don’t take things too seriously.
43 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2017
“We wore
robes, bare-
foot, with
shards of
glass all over
the place,
drowned in
fog and cha-
os”
Godchilla keeping it real
?
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