Terrible Cemetery

"Oh goodie, another black metal band with ridiculous names trying to wish they lived in Norway in the 90's." That was my first thought when I first saw this band on Encylopaedia Metallum. That is, until I turned on their EP Terrible Cemetery and my view on the band was totally changed after the first riff. No joke. Seeing how it is only 2 songs, and there is now way to summarize this EP, I will review each song.

The first track, O Akhea Rheon has a good slow riff to start out with, very doom-oriented from the sound of it. Hint of cymbals. Then the old school black metal vocals kick in giving the dread feeling of the riff a nice angsty feeling that can be found in many a black metal band. Especially when the vocals get strained and makes almost like a cracking sound in the scream. It was here, at a minute in, that I fell in love with the blackened doom act known as Ghast. A slight change in the riff, adding more negative energy to my speakers. Then a little after 2 minutes some more variation kicks in bringing in more black than doom and the melancholy of this unholy band really starts to be felt. So I ask myself: "How can this get better?" With more doom of course! Which is exactly what they brought in, followed by more black metal. The riffs are so masterfully crafted that I really cannot do anything but tap my feet in anticipation for the next 'act' of the song. That act was indeed better than I had hoped, being a bass heavy piece (and I love bass a la Cryptopsy) and leading into a little more aggression for the rest of the song.

The second track, Terrible Cemetery, starts out with a lovely disturbing atmosphere with slow drums and bass followed by those shrieks that Arrrrrrrach and Myrggh do so well. Some parts of this track actually remind me of the band Silencer (Swedish depressive black metal) for some reason. When I first saw that the track was 20 minutes long, I excpected to get bored a few minutes in, expecting it to drone on and on like a lot of doom metal bands do when they try to hard. However, I was again happily surprised at the fact that I stayed interested. I like my music to provide an atmosphere and provide background noise for whatever I was doing, which this did perfectly. I was always litening to it, and conscious of what was happening in the song, but I didn't have to think about it too hard and I could do other things without getting bored with the track. If you really pay attention to the guitar work behind the other sound, hopefully you will find the wonderfully sad riffs of Arrrrrrrach. One of those doom riffs that leave you feeling slightly despondent but they still sound somewhat upbeat. It is a sound like nostalgia, for lack of a better word. The fact that the three men of this band were able to bring about EMOTION in their music is also another plus. I can tell that this band truly crafts their music and they do it very well.

I will be very anxious for this band to release something else in the near future, or at least looking into their other bands, and I would advise my fellow metalheads to do the same. It is rare that I hear an album now a days that just makes my jaw drop, but this would be the one. It is perhaps one of the best EPs of the year, in both the genres of black metal and doom metal. The interviews I read on their website were fantastic as well. Ghast, you have given me hope that metal is still alive in this world. Thank you.

Further proving my theory that the UK currently has some of the best black metal going.

This is the first EP from Welsh black metallers Ghast, called Terrible Cemetery. It is the follow up to the 2008 album, (in my opinion essential,) May The Curse Bind.

The first track, the 8:00 minute O Akhea Rheōn is taken from the bands early days, when they went under the name Souldust, and is a rather good solid track of Ghast's almost trademark doom laden black metal, though not as good as anything of the full length, (but given their writing will have matured and their sound honed in, its understandable,) but still a very good track.

I suppose its nice in a way to see where the band have come from, and see where they have come to, which the next track, the 20 and a half minute title track, shows rather well.

This is for me, the perfect mix of black and doom metal. The slow drum patterns, and slow almost droning bass lines, but with the tremolo'd guitar riffs, and black metal vocals. This mix gradually builds to a wonderful climax around three quarters of the way through the track. Around this time is some of the finest metal you will hear this year.
Its slower than most of the stuff on May The Curse Bind, but for an epic like this, you can't blast for 20 minutes. And though it is 20 minutes, it never feels like it's getting boring or starting to drag.

The atmosphere is great too, its not like atmospheric black metal as such, but it does have an certain feel to it, which I think is helped by the production. Speaking of which, it’s a quite clean production, but don't confuse that for overproduced & polished, it still has a gritty black metal feel to it, but with everything nice and audible.

One of the better EP's by a UKBM band this year, I highly recommend it