Galvanist
A harrowingly intense metal band from Bozeman, MT
I love living in Montana. It’s absolutely beautiful; the forests, rivers, and lakes in my corner of the state are incredible. I see hawks and eagles fly overhead on a regular basis. Deer show up in my yard to eat dandelions. But culturally speaking, it can be a little isolating. There are lots of musicians around playing one variety of country or folk music or another, but not a whole lot else. (Hails to Bill Kautz, who has a weekly radio show in Missoula on which he regularly plays Burning Ambulance Music releases.) So when I come across something a little more aggressive, I get excited.
Galvanist are a metal band from Bozeman, Montana. So they’re not exactly “in my neighborhood”; Bozeman is over 300 miles away, about five and a half hours by car. But they’re fellow Montanans, so when I heard their album The Silence Between Stars and liked it a lot, I decided to share their work with you all. (I asked for an interview; they said no.)
The Silence Between Stars is their first official full-length, following Connection, a three-track EP from 2022 that they describe as a demo. Connection is over 40 minutes long, though (longer than Silence, in fact), so it could just as easily be called an album. They’ve only had one membership change between releases: vocalist and rhythm guitarist Tanner Erhart, lead guitarist Micah Tippit (who also plays keyboards and sings), and drummer Chris Navarro are constants, while original bassist Seth Francis has been replaced by Kevin George.
Each of the three tracks on Connection — “Inner Experience,” “Tears of Eros,” and “Acéphale” — is named for a work by Georges Bataille. The lyrics are hard to decipher, but the music has a certain ritualistic quality, particularly the nearly 20-minute “Acéphale” (translation: “Headless”; it’s named for a secret society Bataille formed in the 1930s, and the journal they published). Black metal has always been entwined with a certain mysticism, and Galvanist, on these songs, were making music that would appeal to fans of Deathspell Omega, Funeral Mist, and other acts who used the style as a vehicle to explore philosophically rigorous concepts rather than play around with Satanic kitsch.
Galvanist are much more than a black metal band, though. There are strong elements of black metal on Connection, but there are a lot of other things going on, too. The way the guitars and bass intertwine can be traced all the way back to Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler’s almost jazzy interactions in Black Sabbath, and Erhart isn’t a black metal shrieker; his voice is a hoarse, bearish roar that reminds me of Aaron Turner (of Isis, Sumac and Neurosis). The slowness of their music also reminds me of Isis, and they use synths and electronics that give their compositions a dark romanticism without getting anywhere near Goth or industrial. And Tippit occasionally grants himself extended guitar solos that flow organically out of the songs.
The Silence Between Stars begins with “Bornless,” a minute-long synth intro that bleeds seamlessly into the first song, “Atrophy”; as the synths fade away, guitar feedback rises and the band comes pounding in. The song has a post-hardcore/post-metal feel reminiscent of Neurosis or Converge. The riffs are slow and oceanic, but Navarro’s drumming is extremely busy — he’s doing the most of anyone, pounding out tribal rhythms, then jumping into extended double-kick passages as the guitars soar and bulldoze across the landscape. Erhart’s lyrics feel like an invocation, welcoming us into the world the band inhabits; the song’s chorus is “Arise, void treader/Trembling/Upon feet not your own.” Midway through the nearly 10-minute track, a second, chugging riff arrives, signaling a change of gear. The second half is more cathartic, building to a passionately eruptive guitar solo and even a blast beat section before returning to earth.
The two longest tracks on the album, “Dreich” and “Spiorad” (both are over 10 minutes), have as their titles Scottish words. “Dreich” is an adjective used to describe cold, rainy, miserable weather; “Spiorad” translates to “spirit.”
“Dreich” has a slow, trudging feel. The drums are a slow march downhill, and the guitars repeat simple riffs that weigh on the listener’s shoulders like the burden of existence. The lyrics are delivered first as spoken poetry, then as anguished shouts; there’s almost nothing “musical” about Erhart’s performance here — it’s extraordinarily raw. As on “Atrophy,” Navarro launches a blast beat section right at the song’s midpoint, after which a more aggressive, chugging riff emerges, but the overall mood of the piece remains oppressive.
“Hauntology” is the most aggressive track on the record, and the shortest of the four full songs at just 7:53. It also features two guests: Jacob Myers delivers a short rant toward the end, before screaming the word “faithless” several times, and Harul Vinay adds synths deep in the mix that buzz like wasps infused with cosmic rays.
“Spiorad” is the natural conclusion to the album. The longest track at 10:53, it’s also the most elaborate, and features more guests: Kat Stephens adds multitracked, clean choral vocals that appear at the moments of highest drama, and Will Summers creates an ambient noise piece, gentle electronics mixed with haunted-house piano, to take it out. Until that final minute, though, this is a high-energy song with extremely busy and pounding drums, an unusually high-pitched guitar melody (the most overtly black metal touch on the whole record) and a strong sense of dynamics — it shifts gears several times, almost working as a suite. Erhart delivers lyrics about transition and evolution, in the cosmic sense: “My inhalation echoes the heart of the void… We are not alone/We are not but just ourselves/All that is proceeds from what was… I cross this threshold towards worlds strange and wonderful.”
The Silence Between Stars is an extremely artful set of very well-constructed songs, clearly part of an artistic school (if you like Isis, if you like Neurosis, if you like Converge, you will like Galvanist) but ultimately unlike anything else I’ve heard this year. Bassist Kevin George mixed and mastered it, and it sounds great, especially on headphones.
Galvanist are playing this year’s Fire In The Mountains festival, which is happening about 90 minutes away from me in about six weeks. If you’re gonna be there, check them out.
Intriguing band. Thanks for shedding a little light on their darkened music. Curious why they’d decline an interview opportunity.