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Gone Cosmic
Sideways in Time
Kozmik Artifactz - 2019
Michael Panontin
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They weren't even born when dinosaurs like Cactus, Dust or Girlschool trod the earth, but these four Calgarians can belt out those bone-crunching chords and ear-splitting caterwauls with the best of them. Gone Cosmic almost seem to have come out of nowhere. The band only played their first gig in May of last year. Now here they are with a debut LP out on the Molln(DE)-based Kozmik Artifactz imprint.
The nucleus of Gone Cosmic actually stretches back nearly a decade, when guitarist Devin 'Darty' Purdy and bassist Brett Whittingham started up stoner-rock band Chron Goblin. "Marcello [Castronuovo], Brett and I met in Calgary in 2010 when Marcello recorded Chron Goblin's first EP," Purdy recently told CM. "We became great friends and continued to jam over the years but didn't formalize anything until 2018. We loved the heavy psych jams of Earthless and progressive elements of Elder and Once and Future Band and wanted to combine those influences with a powerful female singer to create a project of our own."
Enter Abbie Thurgood, whose powerful pipes proved to be just what the guys were looking for. "In late 2017/early 2018 we decided to write an album. After a year of jamming and hosting auditions for a vocalist, we were introduced to Abbie [and] we all immediately knew she was the perfect fit for the project."
Sideways in Time may be Gone Cosmic's first effort, but you'd hardly know it. For one, the record benefits from the group's residence at Calgary's world-class OCL Studios. And no surprise, I guess, as the four apparently had the run of the place. "We spent nine days living and recording at OCL," Purdy boasts. "It's stocked with some of the best equipment in the world and has unbelievable acoustics. We recorded during all hours of the day and there were lots of late nights with friends and family in the tracking room along for the journey. We got to make dinners together and have drinks in the pool daily."
The listener is pretty well whacked right off the bat with two of Sideways...' best tracks, the hard-rocking 'Dazed' and its equally hefty sibling 'Deadlock', the latter especially with Purdy's impressive axework and - as is the case on the whole disc, really - Thurgood's soaring vocal performance. Elsewhere, the guys take their riffs down proggier paths with tunes like 'Turbulent', with its countless time changes and rather convincing late-psych guitar solo. And then the record closes things down, weirdly enough, with a respite of sorts. 'My Design' is a more hushed affair which leaves little meat for the metalheads to chew on, but which allows the rhythm section, and then towards the end Thurgood, to really strut their stuff.
And the artwork on Sideways in Time is stunning, both front and back. So for those of you who still secretly harbour a soft spot for CDs, as I do, go for the black wax on this one. You won't be disappointed.
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Kozmik Artifactz
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