A Very Old Ghost Behind the Farm (such a cool name) started out as a French one-man band in 2009 but have since grown into a full band playing live shows and releasing this, their full length debut album. The album is available from their bandcamp page with a ‘name your price’ deal and this album is certainly worth a few bucks at least but this band is very different. For starters, don’t expect an album of typical slow plodding riffs here, this band unleashes some high-octane punk-ish passages that are closer to Acid Bath than they are Saint Vitus.
A Very Old Ghost Behind The Farm really mix things up from Electric Wizard drug-fueled stoner-doom to Khanate styled drone-noise to moments of pure nola-sludge metal.
After the jump check out the rest doom filled review!
The band is a little off-the-wall as some very doomy moments are given a kind of folkie twist that almost like country music gone sludge. It is creepy but at the same time, slightly twisted and quirky. The songs have the typical occult edge you expect from so many doom bands these days but they are constantly throwing you a curve-ball and that is where some of the more traditional doom fans might find this too much to handle.
Put it this way, if you think moshing and doom shouldn’t go together, you might want to stay clear of this album. There is a lot of mid-tempo chugging which is not that unusual for a doom act to throw into the mix but they also blend into up-tempo, in-your-face aggressive parts that are like Eyehategod on speed. Yes, it pushes the doom envelope a little bit too much in parts but I dig the album anyway.
Highlights include ‘As Million Rats’ that is some brutal sludge and ‘Night Of The Hunter’ which has a very dark, menacing vibe while keeping it seriously rocking – in other words a doom tune that can still snap neck muscles. The tempo of most of these songs will turn the average doom-fan off, I can say that with 100% conviction. The guitar sounds are doom, the concepts are doom but the faster tempos have nothing to do with doom-metal at all for the most part but that gives this band a unique edge.
There is many doom elements within these songs but the tempos destroy the atmosphere most doom listeners would be used to hearing. If you are one of those brave souls that are prepared to chance on something different, throw the band a few $$$ at their bandcamp page and download yourself a copy of ‘Primary Septagon,’ it won’t be for everyone but I think this is really sick stuff.
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