By The Time You Read This (He Will Already Be Dead) - R.I.P. David Gold

I woke this morning to a text from Buke asking me whether I had heard that David Gold had been killed in a traffic accident. With bleary eyes I read the text and my heart dropped. I had not heard the news, despite the fact that it happened five days ago. With Christmas going on I’ve been pretty out of touch to the news the last few days. As is my habit when I get news I don’t want to believe, I Googled to make sure it was true. Sadly, it was. Five days later and the details are still very few from what I’ve been able look up.

In case you’ve never had the pleasure to know who David Gold was, he was the mastermind behind the brilliant Canadian blackened doom band Woods of Ypres. I only became a fan of Woods of Ypres earlier this year, though I’d heard of them prior. I heard “Woods IV: The Green Album” and instantly fell in love with Woods; I immediately began devouring their earlier albums as well.

Shortly after this discovery I did a review of “Woods IV” and wrote up an email interview for David. I never got the interview back; I think maybe he was waiting to do it closer to the release of their upcoming album. Or maybe he just thought my questions were stupid. Guess I’ll never know.

You know how people talk about how their last conversation with someone before they died was an argument? Well, in my case, the only conversation I ever had with David was basically him telling me what an ass I am. Buke and I were at the Enslaved show and Junius was opening. Junius sounded terrible and out of tune and I Tweeted as much. David thought I was being harsh and needlessly mean, and he was right. I was in the middle of a one-sided bro-mance with the guy, so I was upset that he must be thinking badly of me. I felt justified in what I said, they did sound horrible, but not in the way I presented that information, so in a way I felt we were both right. We sent a few messages back and forth, but I never convinced him I wasn’t an asshole. We never spoke again after that.

Despite that unfortunate event I was still (am still) very much looking forward to the upcoming release in February. Only now it will be bittersweet rather than the beginning of something big I was hoping for. I was going to post today anyway that I am taking this week off from reviewing between Christmas and New Years, but now in addition I’m dedicating this week at RMC as a moment of silence for David.

“..and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest”