LowlightOracle wrote:
I have been thinking about this a lot since it happened and have also wondered why nothing else has been said about it - even if his family wish it to be a private matter, the police would still have to release the actual details of what happened to the press, so its strange that nothing else has been said. The part of the highway the accident occurred on is near an intersection, but it does not seem to have any footpaths nearby so it would be strange for him to have been walking by the road there, unless as someone above said, he was walking back to his own car after helping someone out.
I'm not sure what really happened, but if you read David's twitter posts in the week up to his death was clearly VERY depressed at that time. His posts tragically read like someone who is saying goodbye. He even says something about "career suicide leading to..." i.e. real suicide, I assume.
The last track on the album - Alternate Ending - does, i agree, also seems like a vision of his own death. However it is not as clearly cut as it seems since I heard an interview with Joel Violette who co-wrote the Woods 5 and he said that the lyrics were, in part at least, to do with a family friend of David's who won the lottery but alienated his whole family (hence the lyric "was there anyone to share in your joy") - the song imagines him dying of a heart attack on the highway alone despite his new found wealth. Having said that, some of the lyrics don't seem to fit with that story and may be a higher level addition to it in which David is singing about the woman he loves but no longer loves him (Sarah Green I assume - the one who did backing vocals on Woods 2). The fact that the track Finality is clearly about her/a woman, and the same word 'finality' is used in Alternate ending towards the end of the song makes me think there is a mixing of meanings and stories here. If it wasn't suicide then it was at least a horrible poetic coincidence.
Anyway, David's death was a tragic occurrence, and I'm gutted he never lived to enjoy the plaudits that Woods 5 got, and would have got, even had he lived. I'm sorry for his family and friends. RIP David Gold.
Thanks so much for the details, which cleared a few things up. However I can’t help but wonder, like you, why the ‘metal media’ never found out (and published) some of the details…..And his Twitter posts don’t bother me as much because….well…he seemed to be kind of a depressed person in general, judging by some of his lyrics….Plus shortly before he died he texted his mom that he was ‘on his way home’ or something like that, which doesn’t seem like something he would’ve said before committing suicide, unless it was some sort of twisted metaphor….I know David had some definite personal problems, but I can only hope that he wouldn’t say something like that then go & kill himself and (intentionally) put his mother through all that…..Maybe I’m over-thinking…..I don’t know what’s more depressing for me: The suicide scenario or thinking that he just went to help someone having car problems then got hit by a car and killed, only to get caught up in, as you called it, ‘a horrible poetic coincidence’…..
Bottom line….it’s just a tragedy no matter what you believe happened…..I discovered Woods of Ypres after David died, I bought Woods 5 & thought it was a pretty cool album. Recently I’ve fallen into a deep depression and ‘re-discovered’ that album and WOW….It’s amazing how cathartic their music has become for me....I can relate so well to their lyrics about heartbreak, misery & depression; that I almost feel like I lost a friend that December….a friend I never got to meet (if that makes any sense)….RIP my friend, I never got to meet you in this life, and I hope to see you in the next (that was always 1 point that I slightly disagreed with him on! Hahaha).
LowlightOracle wrote:
Actually, I think I remember reading David saying in an interview that there were 2 or 3 songs that were written but were not actually put on Woods 5 so there may be some still to be released, im not 100% sure though. I'm hoping that all the material pre-Woods 4 gets a re-release on Earache, ideally as gatefold vinyl as I would buy them straight away!
Unfortunately I feel like even if there was recorded, un-released material it might take them years (or even decades) to release it. Take for example some of the recordings of the famous jazz saxophonist John Coltrane, who died in 1967, leaving behind a vault of already recorded yet unreleased material – some of it was released in the 70’s, some in the 90’s, and some in the 2000’s, and there’s speculation that there may still be material that they haven’t reviewed & released yet (if it hasn’t already been purged by the record company)…..Either way I’ll contact David’s mother on YouTube & see what she has to say about any unreleased Woods material.