Ahh, Ghost…not to be confused with the chart bothering Coldplay-like Ghosts. Although it threw me somewhat, the likelihood of finding the singular Ghost anywhere near the charts is pretty damn distant.

In Stormy Nights is a six track LP. Bookended by two relatively pleasant folk tinged numbers, the epicentre of this is the half hour epic Hemicyclic Anthelion. Like the next man I enjoy a bit of experimentalism but this thirty minutes was like grinding teeth. The sprawling beast had no direction or rhythm to speak of, and ideas were frequently tossed in the air batted around and quickly dropped. Around 20 minutes in (the skip button came in handy), things threatened to get interesting as the guitars spiralled to some kind of crescendo but it was a false dawn and the disappointment was tinged further by the realisation there was another ten minutes to endure.

Ghost make some interesting music but it is all too often confused by the wealth of ideas in the melting pot. The opening Motherly Bluster owes its origins to a strong folk influence. Elsewhere on Garek No Toshi there is a meeting of Black Sabbath and David Bowie which bizzarely just about works.

It was an exhausting and at times harrowing experience to sit through a Stormy Night with Ghost, but they have the potential to carve a niche for themselves as pioneers in the folkrockexpirementalprog (or FREP) genre.
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Links:
Ghost [official site]