For the most part, Solstafir’s seventh full-length album follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, 2017’s Berdreyminn (Season of Mist). The songwriting still largely favors the band’s subdued side with influences ranging from Post Punk, Prog Rock, and Ambient greatly informing the Post Metal whole. Tracks like ‘Rokkur’ and ‘Her Fall From Grace’ are heavy on atmosphere with extensive space to breathe and ‘Or’ throws a curveball with its almost Jazz-tinged rhythms.
Considering the lengthy silence between Chrome Waves self-titled EP in 2012 and 2019’s A Grief Observed, it’s great that the group has been so prolific since their comeback. Their second full-length album, Where We Live (Disorder Recordings), picks up where its predecessor left off while featuring its own set of changes. Dustin Boltjes (ex-Skeletonwitch, Sacred Leather) is on drums in place of the tragically passed Bob Fouts, and the eclectic influences behind the band’s melancholic sound are given room to expand even further.Continue reading
South African post-Black outfit Constellatia arrived just two short years ago, and already last year’s debut album The Language of Limbs (Season of Mist) has earned a power-label reissue. A blast of atmospheric harshness and aching melody with a touch of doomed romance, its four tracks are a paean to the outer edges of Emotion.Continue reading
Proggy post-Black Metal band Karg is back with a new full-length album Traktat, out this Friday, February 7th, 2020, via AOP Records. The evocative, inspirational project started out in 2006 as a solo endeavor from J.J. of Harakiri For The Sky in Salzburg Austria but is now more of a fleshed-out, full-band project. Fans of atmospheric Black Metal, post-Metal, Blackgaze, prog, and drone styles will love the emotional ebb and flow of Traktat with all the gravitas of the greats of the genre. The band will celebrate the release with a European tour, kicking off tomorrow night in Oberhausen, Germany at Helvete. You can stream the entire new album, right here at Ghost Cult, right now! Continue reading
Alcest previously announced March 2020 tour dates in support of their recent album Spiritual Healing (Nuclear Blast Records). will hit the road again, in support of their new studio album Spiritual Instinct, that saw the light of day last month. The band has now added a London show date to the UK leg, set to take place on March 4th at Heaven. French hardcore punk act Birds In Row as well as the Icelandic synth-pop trio Kælan Mikla will provide direct support on all dates. Continue reading
Blackgaze legends Alcest are releasing their new album Spiritual Instinct via their new label Nuclear Blast Records on October 25th. We caught up with bandleader Neige all about the process of making the new album, the differences between Kodama, reincorporating more extreme and heavy sounds, hos love of 1980s post-Punk music, his feelings about concept albums, collaborating on artwork, and a lot more!
Folk Metal is a curious genre. Oftentimes it can be undeservingly treated with ridicule; when a pair of violins and a flute appear onstage alongside a BC Rich plenty of jeers can come the way of the performers. Sometimes the ridicule is fully deserved as the folk influence can become painfully twee affair: see Eluveitie or Turisas at times. On rare occasions, however, a traditional sway can produce truly beautiful results; see, in this case, SAOR.Continue reading
For all the directions and manner of subject matter that Metal music conveys, for a record to be purely joyous and sincerely uplifting, not simply fun or adrenaline pumping, is a rarity. It is this feeling that Boston, Massachusetts’ own Astronoid tap in to. Their debut effort Air came from out of nowhere and made waves in some circles, whilst criminally going unnoticed by many others, with a sound entirely of their own. Where Air was an excellent and unique debut, their self-titled (both Blood Music) follow-up is Astronoid refining and fully realising who they are.Continue reading
As the Ghost Cult Albums of the Year 2018 run-down approaches the business end, picking up where Part 1 left off, we invite you to peruse the albums that, democratically voted for by the entire crew, make our Top 25 and didn’t just prick up our ears, but smashed their way into our hearts and minds. Read on…
As the evolution of black metal has seen it move from a primarily raw and aggressive form (albeit with plenty of variation and multiple characters even in its infancy) to the sprawling and multifaceted beast it is today, Catalonian’s Foscor have to undergo significant transformation across their duration. Where their earliest works were arguably considered more archetypal, by the release of last year’s Les Irreals Visions (Season Of Mist) the band had fully morphed to a more blackgaze sound, complete with gloomy atmosphere and the balance between heavy and serene.Continue reading