Through their forthcoming second album the Dutch band Ggu:ll prove themselves absolute masters of lightlessness. They named the album Ex Est as a reference to the state after being, and “the realization that all that is, will someday not be”, and that “all is doomed to end up as a ruin of itself”. It poses the question whether there is a meaning in existence despite the realization that life itself is meaningless.

With such a daunting and borderline-nihilist conception at the core of Ex Est, it is no wonder that the music is so pitch-black and so harrowing. From the funereal bell-like clanging that begins the opening track “Raupe”, straight through to the final shattering wails of pain in “Voertuig der verlorenen”, Ggu:ll render a nightmare that feels all too real. Continue reading »