ninehertz

It’s funny, Crumbling Ghost have been at this for years now (13 since their debut), ostensibly a folk band but on the fringes of drone and doom; then they take a sabbatical and a whole scene has grown up on our isles in an adjacent style (Ancient Hostility, Greet, One Leg One Eye, Smote and so on). It is more than apt that they return now.

Followers of the band and advocates of their three releases prior will notice a clear development and growth in their sound, from early on in this record. Bows of London begins, showcasing everything that makes them so special – which could be unfairly although descriptively reduced to how they control and merge the contrasts between its clear historic folk soul with the darker, modern beating heart. But there’s more here, heavier for one, but also in that the lines between these contrasts are now invisible.

It feels electric as a result – hear Bill Norrie and the stoner/doom riff to die for as further proof, a song that heads towards Elephant Tree territories in style and quality, thick and fuzzed out of its eyeballs. They have total mastery in welding the segments of their uncommon approach with an alchemic finesse.

The album ends as strongly as it began. After the faint Smote feel of Gower Wassail follows Last of All Sleep, a different turn altogether with a warming guitar tone and vocal and an almost 90’s post-grunge feel, a touch of Masters of Reality in its genial coolness. And then it ends with the longer The Unquiet Grave, which begins like one of the sedate classic Smashing Pumpkins songs, before using its extra length to give the instruments time to explore. The vocals arrive after a delay and we’re in classic Crumbling Ghost realms for one final happy time.

Crumbling Ghost have always been unique, and here they have developed that distinctive identity even further, their harmony of historical folk and doom augmented by flashes of prog and psychedelia, intertwined as never before so as to become one. Four, as a result, is masterful, and truly emotional in its frequent high peaks.