“Volatile Simian Nervous-System” opens like a system crash – feedback, drum hits, two vocalists tearing at each other across a wall of locked-in metallic screamo that moves at the pace of something deeply unwell. It’s in the same zip code as pg.99 and Majority Rule but has its own wiring, its own specific kind of damage.
Around the 40-second mark the floor drops out and you end up somewhere else entirely — don’t want to spoil it, just know it gets weirder and better. The band’s comment on the whole thing: “Throw a flash bang at my skull ////// I don’t remember anything.” Which covers it, honestly.
This is the lead single off Dissimulation, the third full-length from Richmond, Virginia’s .gif from god, due April 16th through Prosthetic Records. The video was directed by Nick Holland and is up now. Be sure to check it out if you missed it above.
The six-piece have been at this since 2015, locking in their final lineup — including two stand-alone vocalists — in 2017.
The setup has always been about maximum pressure: three guitarists, two voices, one drummer keeping the whole thing from flying apart. As Stereogum put it, “.gif from god makes frantic, explosive screamo that often veers into pure metallic chaos,” which is accurate if you’re being polite about it.
Dissimulation was produced by the band and recorded at Viva Studios with Matt Michel, who also engineered and mixed the record. It’s their second time working with him, after 2018’s Approximation of a Human, which was tracked at his home studio.
This time around it was his new space. “Matt is an all time legend,” the band says.
“His band Majority Rule was a massive inspiration to us growing up and his current band No Man amazes us every chance we get to play with them.
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The first time we recorded with him was our second full length Approximation of a Human and was done at his home studio in 2018, very close to the neighborhoods where many of us grew up.”
The recording process was intense in the way you’d expect: “The only tension was between ourselves trying to get the best takes possible. We are insane and Matt’s patience with us can’t be overstated. Beyond getting the chance to record two records with someone who’s music meant so much to us growing up, he couldn’t be nicer to work with and we can’t thank him enough for opening up his beautiful home to us for several days.” Mastering was handled by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege.
Most of the band grew up in Northern Virginia, came up through the same basements and sheds in the early 2000s, and were already playing together before .gif from god existed. The influences that shaped them — pg.99, Majority Rule, City of Caterpillar, Frodus, Pig Destroyer — weren’t abstract reference points.
They were the sounds coming out of rooms nearby. “We were too young to go to DIY shows in the mid to late 90’s but rather started frequenting basements and sheds in the early 2000s,” the band explains. “Many of these bands were ‘broken up’ or on hiatus when we started making our own bands but it seemed like probably not much had changed based on videos and stories from those early years we had missed out on. Small sweaty crowded rooms with loud, cathartic, chaotic riffs and vocals that immediately made you feel like you’ve found your home.”
A decade in, that lineage feels less like influence and more like active inheritance. Many of those same bands have since reunited; .gif from god have gotten to meet them, play with them, watch the scene cycle back into something alive again.
“We’ve also seen countless incredible young bands sprout up in the past few years and once again breathe new life into this scene, which has been a privilege to witness. We are lucky to be active in this moment and the golden age we are living through is not lost on us. Virginia DIY forever.”
Thematically, Dissimulation goes after something harder to name — “the unseen, otherworldly senses within us that are indescribable and horrific to face. Spiraling paranoid fantasies that lure you deeper into the cosmic abyss.” Fifteen tracks, opening on “SEE █████████” and closing on “Obliterated Serial Number,” with stops at “Lalilulelolelulilal,” “A Fucked Up Face,” and “That De-Syncing Feeling” along the way.
.gif from god is John Crogan (drums), Sofia Lakis (bass), Chris Morgan (guitar), Brian Russo (guitar), Andrew Schwartz (vocals), and Mitchie Shue (vocals), with Demir Soyer on additional guitar on “A Fucked Up Face.”
Preorders are up now via Prosthetic Records.
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