I am sad to tell you that David Gold died December 22, 2011 in an automobile accident near Barrie, Ontario, Canada. You can find details here.
David Gold RIP
A new Woods of Ypres record has been released. It's called
I met David Gold in 2003 in Windsor, Ontario when I worked for CBC. After years in radio I started learning about television production and was looking for story ideas. I saw two teenagers near the HMV in the mall. I asked them about the CDs they had just bought, they told me it was a local Black Metal Band Woods of Ypres. Windsor's music scene was small and I was fairly knowledgeable at the time but Black Metal was off my radar. I followed up with a call to David Gold and that was my introduction to and education about sub genres of metal.
A description of David's band from a metal site:
Woods of Ypres plays a unique style of high energy black metal with deep, lasting melodies and a certain cold, flowing sorrow that appropriately celebrates that which you learn in times of sadness.
I recently reconnected with David and found out he is making music with a very different band than the one I saw in Windsor. Being a full time musician is a hard road at the best of times. Playing to a select audience whether it's folk, outsider jazz or metal takes hard work and dedication. I admire David for sticking to his very loud guns. I also think his new music is great. After you read about his influences, please watch the video at the bottom of the page. It's great -- and I will be eternally grateful to David for opening the metal door for me.
I knew he'd be an interesting guy to invite to my blog. I knew that when I asked David Gold to Press Play > I wouldn't be disappointed.
WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
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| Robyn |
I need to buy some CDs, and I actually will. I'm starting to think I might be the last customer they have at my local HMV in Sault Ste. Marie, likely referred to as "That Beard Guy" by the staff in statements such as "Have you seen That Beard Guy in here today?" and "I hope That Beard Guy comes in and buys something soon. It's almost 8 pm!"
WHAT IS THE RECORD (OKAY MAYBE ONE OR TWO) THAT INFLUENCED YOUR MUSIC THE MOST?
I could only fire off as many as this, as a minimum, in order to start to answer this question properly. Here they are, in chronological order (when I heard them and therefore the order in which they influenced my development):
Amorphis - Tales from the Thousand Lakes
Jerry Cantrell - Degradation Trip
Sentenced - The Cold White Light
Solefald - Pills Against the Ageless Ills
Katatonia - Last Fair Deal Gone Down
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Nocturama
The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
I'm sure that I'll pound my fist on a flat surface and shout an obscenity later today or tonight, remembering a really, really important one that I forgot, that totally deserved to be here, but you know, I realize that I've just lived and loved a lot of records at this point. Just turned 31 here and still feeling like I'm "discovering" new sound all the time.
WHAT WAS THE FIRST RECORD YOU BOUGHT?
WHAT WAS THE FIRST RECORD YOU BOUGHT?
I first got into music as CDs had just started to be sold and tapes were still available everywhere. The first "real" records I remember owning were a Jimi Hendrix compilation called The Ultimate Experience, Meat Loaf, Bat Out Of Hell II, Public Enemy - Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black, but before that I'm sure there were some Wierd Al Yankovic records, a Kriss Kross tape, and two M.C. Hammer tapes (I never owned any Vanilla Ice). In my teens, I bought a lot of whatever Much Music showed me, with various results, including buying The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride to the Pharcyde right when it came out, when I was in grade 6 I think, and that album still rules!
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE COVER TUNE (SONG AND BY WHOM?)
One that stands out, is Don't Fear the Reaper by The Blue Oyster Cult, covered by the Finnish "Love Metal" band HIM. In my teens, I had always loved the haunting feeling of the original, long before that "Needs more cowbell!" skit on SNL made it famous. The HIM version plays the opening riff on piano (which is a Woods Of Ypres trick, to transpose piano parts to guitar and vice versa) and also features female vocals that create separate characters between the dialogue of the lyrics. Another stand out favourite would be Seals and Crofts' Summer Breeze covered by Type O Negative on the Bloody Kisses album.
WHAT IS THE RECORD YOU COUNT AS A GUILTY PLEASURE?
Rebel Meets Rebel - The collaboration between late Pantera guitarist and metal icon Dimebag Darrell Abott, Vinnie Paul and Rex Brown from Pantera and outlaw country music star David Allan Coe.It has the heavy metal drums and guitar balls of Pantera, country lyrics like "A man with nothin' ain't got nothin' to lose" and even proposes some new questions to consider such as "I wonder if cowboys do more dope than rock and rollers?" A guilty pleasure, yes, in the context of this question here and now, but I really fun record that I am proud to own listen to and recommend.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE RECORD TO LISTEN TO ON THE ROAD?
I don't think I have a favourite road record. In fact, towards the end of tour I prefer silence and some peace of mind over nearly anything else, and certainly over any and all metal music. Now back at home after a 40 day tour, I'm listening to two new purchases, While Heaven Wept - Fear of Infinity, Type O Negative - Dead Again (my second copy) and an old favourite... that might just be my favourite record to listen to on the road, The Wounded - Monument. At home, inside, closer to my computer than the van CD player, there's always a lot of CBC Radio 3 playing. A lot.
WHICH OF YOUR RECORDS (YOUR SOLO OR BAND'S RECORDINGS) IS/ARE YOUR FAVOURITE(S)?
Always the newest one of course! Actually, I like all of our records for different memories and reasons and because of varying degrees of hopeful expectations and desperation. I think I had the highest hopes for Woods III: Deepest Roots & Darkest Blues which was the best album sales wise but I believe was the biggest disappointment with the listeners and therefore with me, as well.
WIII was a massive record that took about a year too long to finish and regardless of how it could have turned out, it could have never lived up to the hype, and it didn't.
I had little to no expectations for 2002's Woods I: Against the Seasons - Cold Winter Songs from the Dead Summer Heat and it has stood the test of time, being a nearly unanimous favourite among long time listeners, known as the album that gives you what you want with none of what you don't. It keeps getting better and better reviews the older is gets, the farther we get from 2002. I feel as though I did something right in these last 10 years, or at least, 10 years ago, I did.
WIII was a massive record that took about a year too long to finish and regardless of how it could have turned out, it could have never lived up to the hype, and it didn't.
I had little to no expectations for 2002's Woods I: Against the Seasons - Cold Winter Songs from the Dead Summer Heat and it has stood the test of time, being a nearly unanimous favourite among long time listeners, known as the album that gives you what you want with none of what you don't. It keeps getting better and better reviews the older is gets, the farther we get from 2002. I feel as though I did something right in these last 10 years, or at least, 10 years ago, I did.
Back to your question, I think the next record will be the favourite, Woods 5 as in, my favourite and the overall favourite of our listening audience. Give it a few years and you'll likely see. Working on it now! Writing. Reflecting. Re-writing.
WHAT'S THE RECORD YOU BOUGHT AND WISHED YOU DIDN'T?
Arcturus - Sideshow Symphonies. The previous Arturus album, The Sham Mirrors is still widely considered one of the coolest metal albums from all the 2000's, and I was certainly a huge fan. I bought the next album based on the reputation built from the last one, a 9/10 review in Terrorizer magazine, but otherwise, totally faithfully, blindly. It sucked and sucks still.
There's maybe one good part on that whole album. I try to remember that this is the age of "always listen before you buy," but sometimes I still get excited at a record store and prefer to be decisive in the moment, hope for the best and sort out the consequences later.
Also, the first Grinderman album is much better than the second one. Same deal. Sometimes you love what a band is doing so much you want to support them anyways, rather than judge them and potentially withdraw that love because things aren't the same as they used to be anymore.
If a band ever gave me one album I loved, I'll never turn my back on them. That's what one great album is worth I think. You might have to buy eight albums to find one. That's the biz. That's reality.
You can follow David Gold on Twitter @DavidYpres
You can read about Woods of Ypres on Wikipedia
There's maybe one good part on that whole album. I try to remember that this is the age of "always listen before you buy," but sometimes I still get excited at a record store and prefer to be decisive in the moment, hope for the best and sort out the consequences later.
Also, the first Grinderman album is much better than the second one. Same deal. Sometimes you love what a band is doing so much you want to support them anyways, rather than judge them and potentially withdraw that love because things aren't the same as they used to be anymore.
If a band ever gave me one album I loved, I'll never turn my back on them. That's what one great album is worth I think. You might have to buy eight albums to find one. That's the biz. That's reality.
You can follow David Gold on Twitter @DavidYpres
You can read about Woods of Ypres on Wikipedia
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