### Ghost Brigade: Isolation songs

#### 11/03/10 || Euthanatos

People often complain about end of the year lists. I have no idea why, people these days seem to take pleasure in bitching about everything under the sun. Me, I love a good list. Fact, I’ll make up a list for practically anything you want. And I also love reading other people’s lists, specially if I happen to know them. It was through the list of one of these people I know, Jon “The Charn” from Job for a Cowboy (that’s right, I hang with superstars. Word.), that I got to know about Ghost Brigade.

The first thought that crossed my mind while and after listening to “Isolation Songs” was, this is what the child of Opeth and Katatonia would sound like. It’s a lot more Katatonia than Opeth, but the similarities are there, especially in the guitar work. This album was one of the strongest efforts I listened to in 2009, and I hope this review will help them gather a little recognition. Not that anyone reads Global Domination, but still.

The vocals alter between an ugly rasp and a really good clean voice. While, yes, the clean voice is much better, I still like the duality the aggressive vocals give. It’s not horrible either, it’s just that the clean singing is so heavenly, you totally get a demon x angel thing going on, and maybe that’s a good thing (and the point). Jonas Renkse is the obvious reference here. Musically, as I said, this is also close to Katatonia, but older Katatonia, not quite as mellow as they are now, but not as brutal as they were early on, so somewhere in the middle. See “Last Fair Deal Gone Down”, for instance.

Song writing really is the high point of Ghost Brigade. Every song is neatly crafted and filled with nuance, each aggressive stance is perfectly counterbalanced with chilled out passages. They never go full-on death metal, although the influence is there. Even Melodic Death metal wouldn’t quite cut it, because Ghost Brigade is far from fast, they’re more progressive than anything. The lyrics are your pure nihilistic, doom and gloom glorification, which suits the music, naturally. There is a little Swallow the Sun (in “New Moon”) here, as a little Forest of Shadows as well, musically speaking. Oddly enough, the songs never feel depressing, quite the contrary. “My Heart is a Tomb”, “22:22 Nihil”, “Suffocated” and “Lost in a Loop” are all beautiful songs that have titles which may make you think this is actually funeral doom. Curiously, there’s a faint feeling of hope in the melodies, they’re dark, but somewhat uplifting, and that certainly is something new.

As I said, Ghost Brigade was one of the most welcome surprises of 2009, and I’m really looking forward to listening to them more in the future.

The cover: Incredibly simple, yet beautiful.

- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Season of mist
- Website: www.ghostbrigade.net
- Band
- Manne Ikonen: vocals
- Tommi Kiviniemi: guitars
- Wille Naukkarinen: guitars
- Janne Julin: bass
- Veli-Matti Suihkonen: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Suffocated
- 02. My Heart is a Tomb
- 03. Into the Black Light
- 04. Lost in a Loop
- 05. 22.22 Nihil
- 06. Architect of New Beginnings
- 07. Birth
- 08. Concealed Revulsions
- 09. Secrets of the Earth
- 10. A Storm Inside