This is the debut album from Australian blackened doom/sludge band Ghostsmoker.
Playing a hideous stew of blackened sludge and doom metal, Ghostsmoker’s debut album Inertia Cult is a 42-minute endurance test – do you have what it takes to survive their onslaught of abrasive distortion and scathing darkness?
Ghostsmoker’s filthy doom is blackened, sludgy, and nasty, yet there’s another level to their music that sets them apart from many other, ostensibly similar bands. Their ability to craft malevolent doomscapes that engage and absorb, while still crushing and brutalising is impressive. The heaviness and grim abrasive edge is great to hear of course, but it is the dark atmospheric aspects that propel the material above the norm. The fact that these two sides of the band are entwined, and frequently support and play off each other, speaks well of Ghostsmoker’s songwriting ability.
Inertia Cult has a charismatic appeal beyond what I’d expect from your average sludge act. It’s brutal, yes, but also refined and well-developed. There is a droning intensity to the music that’s satisfying, arising from a mixture of heavy riffs and doom-drenched atmosphere. Melody appears on occasion; sometimes this takes influence from post-metal’s resplendent qualities, at other times it adopts more of a stoner edge. Either way, Ghostsmoker take this melody and corrupt it, producing something dark and despairing, before using it to deepen their atmospheric textures. In this way, the band explore both harsh heaviness and bleak moodbuilding, using both to fuel the burning worldscapes that they create just to devastate.
Well, Inertia Cult has hit the spot for me, make no mistake. When done well, (as it seems to be less and less these days), this sort of sludge/doom is something that I love, and here it’s done very well indeed. Ghostsmoker are ones to keep a firm eye on.
Don’t miss this underground gem of you’re a fan of bands such as Body Void, Bongripper, Charger, CHRCH, Conan, Cult of Occult, Keeper, Sea Bastard, Thou, Usnea, etc.
Wonderbox Metal 