Golgotha to release Hubris on April 24th!

Held in the arms of comfort and love, surrounded by joy and affirmation, I had no expectation, nor understanding of failure and loss. I had no sense of my own true measure, or of the darknesses that lay so far below me, watching me with hungry eyes and endless patience. I flew higher, heedless and carefree, gathering happiness like an endless crop, a constant golden yield. And as the flames began to flicker along my wings I took them to be just another well-deserved adornment, another gift from a universe that loved me best. And when the fall came, it came fast. I spiralled into shadow, crashing into night…my heart, my mind, my spirit shattering on the rocks of reality. Toxicity and spite, rejection and grief, jealousy and hunger lapped at my feet like a bitter sea, as I lay on the cold, cruel shores of realisation…the scales rebalanced.

Following in the wake of their towering Spreading The Wings Of Hope album, Spain’s Golgotha have returned with the altogether darker hues and harsher, more rugged textures of Hubris. This is an album forged in the pitiless furnace of life; eight songs steeped in the struggle, turmoil and challenges that shape us, that make us human. Reflecting on their latest creation the band have emphatically stated, “these are not fictional stories, but fragments of real life turned into music”.

The album begins with first single, ‘A Simple Life’, opening with a brave, exposed vocal from María J. Lladó that focusses the attention, drawing the listener in before the full tide of Golgotha’s overwhelming sound crashes over them. The poignancy of emotion in this track, with its hypnotic refrain, flows like blood through every chord, every note. Elsewhere, the gargantuan, crawling riffs and huge, monstrous vocals of ‘Broken Toy’ open out into a reflective, melancholy melody – harsh vocals switching to Maria’s clear, emotive tones – as contrasts blend and entwine. Throughout Hubris these two sides of Golgotha, the forceful, bleak and blackened and the doomed, delicate beauty dance with each other in a deftly harmonious, disparate duality. ‘Too Late’ is deep, dark, slow motion death metal until a melodious chorus arrives, allowing a pale, gentle light into the black and a vibrant solo is a burst of flame in the cold murk. From ‘Blind’, in all its tarnished, faded majesty, like a funeral of kings, to the concluding ‘Intolerance’ – a musical conflict between the nobility of sorrow and the raw pain of grief – this is an album that lays bare its heart and shows all its scars. It will hollow you out, caressing your hidden anguish and drawing your wounds into the light.

“I became just an echo…”

- Blind

To capture the real and vivid darkness of Hubris, Golgotha turned to producer Davide Billia (Antropofagus, Beheaded, Posthuman Abomination etc) and the band have described his contribution as “essential in shaping the power and character we wanted for this album”. Hubris will be released by Abstract Emotions on April 24th – another incredible chapter in the unfolding story of Golgotha.