Formed in 2005, these Finnish gloom-mongers have, over the course of three increasingly sophisticated albums, attempted to carve a niche for themselves in the nebulous sphere referred to as ‘dark metal’.
In practice this tends to mean a mishmash of doom, goth, prog and death with a peppering of post-rock and an emphasis on melancholy and melody. With their lush guitars, atmospheric synths and maudlin (occasionally mawkish) vocals, Ghost Brigade certainly make all the right moves. As with 2011’s Until Fear No Longer Defines Us, One With The Storm leans on its lighter moments, the relatively restrained and reflective likes of Disembodied Voices and Anchored edging out more aggressive tunes such as Stones And Pillars and The Knife. Mid-period Paradise Lost, Cult Of Luna, Amorphis and especially Katatonia are all here, bobbing about in a thick gruel of obvious influences. So obvious, in fact, that it threatens to distract from GB’s own material which, although comprehensively derivative, is possessed of more than a dash of colour and flair.
Via Season Of Mist
