Different Press teamed up with GEL for an unique violet vinyl colorway of Persona, restricted to 300 copies. Head to the AP Store to seize yours.
Because the launch of their debut LP, 2023’s Solely Fixed, New Jersey hardcore greats GEL have been touring nonstop. In between their crammed schedule, although, the group escaped to a cabin within the woods to start figuring out new songs, beaming with confidence from their current reveals. The outcome, the fiercely daring Persona EP, sounds far totally different than what’s come earlier than. Produced and engineered by Jon Markson (Drug Church, Drain), GEL opted for a special strategy — specifically to make their songs sound greater with out sacrificing their ferocity — and succeeded tremendously. “We actually wished to fill out the songs extra and make them extra nuanced,” vocalist Sami Kaiser says. “It’s a step ahead. It’s totally different, it’s catchy, however it nonetheless actually feels like us.” You may hear that all through the challenge’s pummeling 5 songs, which revs up the stickiness with out dropping any of the center or depth of their earlier work. But it’s not simply the recording that sounds colossal — the band’s songwriting is extra vibrant and fleshed out. It’s nonetheless uncompromisingly GEL, however the tracks possess unabashedly memorable hooks couched in an ultra-furious ethos that proves why they’re one of many biggest hardcore bands working right this moment.
Learn extra: In dialog with Scowl and Frank Iero
Forward of their Persona tour subsequent month, guitarist Anthony Webster walked us via the songs that influenced their newest EP.
Obituary – “Physique Bag”
Obituary’s Trigger Of Dying was an enormous affect on this report, from the tuning, the guitar tones, and the best way I approached riff writing. Like a lot of the songs or artists on this checklist, you perhaps gained’t be capable to draw a direct line from their music to ours, however it was extra so a mindset when approaching writing a brand new report. Even when recording and going for a extra totally produced sound, I wished to maintain the guitar tones ugly and loud.
Swervedriver – “Sci-Flyer”
Each Increase and Mezcal Head are data I actually love and have been influenced by as a musician. In GEL, I do a whole lot of stuff on the tremolo arm most individuals would credit score MBV for, myself included, however I believe, for me, I all the time had Swervedriver in thoughts when doing these little prospers. This tune specifically is what sparked the unique demo of “Disgrace” as a tune, having it begin on a kind of build-up that we pushed till later within the remaining variations of the tune.
Sonic Youth – “Starpower”
Evol is in all probability my favourite Sonic Youth report, and this tune might be my favourite on the report. I all the time liked how ugly but fairly they’ll make a guitar sound. And whereas experimenting with alternate tunings is one thing I’m too lazy to do, I like discovering my very own methods to make my guitar sound a bit totally different when taking part in the admittedly quite simple riffs I write — even simply including notes the place they shouldn’t belong.
Thoughts Eraser – “Spectral Dominance”
This decide is fairly particular to the tune “Self-importance” on the EP. It’s the slowest GEL tune we’ve ever written, straight impressed by slower and heavy songs by bands like Thoughts Eraser and Weekend Nachos. This complete report/band is nice.
Unfavourable Strategy – “Nothing”
One among my favourite, and the very best, hardcore-punk songs ever. From day one, NA was the most important affect on how I wrote songs for GEL. There’s only a timelessness of the ’80s hardcore songwriting formulation — riff A, riff B, riff A, riff B, performed. At its purest kind, when you have two good riffs, you’ll be able to have a superb hardcore tune.
