“Fungoid blooms turn this world into a tomb.“
Creepsylvanians Ghoul return after seven long years of no big releases with Noxious Concoctions, an EP sporting 5 tracks. The last of these tracks is a cover of Washington crossover thrashers Funerot’s “1-900-DTH-LINE”, keeping in typical Ghoul fashion of covering hardcore and adjacent metal genres as heard on their 2013 EP Intermediate-Level Hardcore, covering the likes of Fearless Iranians From Hell’s “Blow Up the Embassy”, N.O.T.A.’s “Propaganda Control”, as well as better-known bands including a self-stylised cover of The Dayglo Abortions’ “Proud to Be a Canadian” and a cover of Gwar’s “Americanized”featuring late Gwar vocalist Dave Brockie himself.
From the above, it is clear that Ghoul are a band with a deep and real appreciation for classic hardcore; and yet, Ghoul are so much more than a hardcore band, or even a crossover band. Managing a unique blend of spooky surf stuff that sounds straight out of Scooby Doo, thrash in the vein of Exodus, those latter-mentioned 80’s hardcore influences, and with a touch of swampy death metal, Ghoul have created a unique sound for themselves that they perfected on 2016’s Dungeon Bastards. Unfortunately, whilst subsequent releases like Nazi Smasher and Ghoul’s effort on their split with Ill Bill have been some of my favourite Ghoul releases of all, Noxious Concoctions proves rather a let-down in terms of quality.
Despite a promising single in the form of the title track, the album overall is plagued with a number of issues. The production, which is inconsistent between songs anyhow, is some of the worst Ghoul have put their name to in recent years; in particular, the amount of compression on the kick drum of the EP’s first track, “The Eyes of the Witch”, borders on being unbearable. Said track is also a questionable way to begin the EP, as the song pushes the boat out a little musically, ending up sounding less like Ghoul and more akin to bands like Hellripper or Wormwitch, which may be jarring to fans given the level of anticipation behind this release.
Tracks two and three are much more aligned with what I personally want to hear out of the band, with “Noxious Concoctions” and “Shotgun Gulch” providing two songs that drop straight in with the intensity. These tracks have Ghoul written all over them musically, accredit to that unique sound I spoke about earlier as well as other beloved Ghoul tropes like the Moron-Cavern Shackled Choir’s gang vocals. “Shotgun Gulch” reminded me of “Bringer of War” from Dungeon Bastards in the very Toxic-Waltz-ish riffs. The drums sound much better on this track, with the compression on the kick not absolutely destroying the whole track, though the kick is still a tad loud in the overall mix. They are also almost certainly using drum triggers on the kick, in which case the sample used is not great. The rest of the kit sounds very much acoustic, but is unfortunately buried beneath the guitars which are mixed very loud. The vocals also suffer a similar fate throughout this album, often being incomprehensible beneath the guitars.
Ratlicker, though a good track, is a little too close in similarity to 2019’s Nazi Smasher. I did note the solo is extremely “tasty”, and there is a drum solo on this track that gives us an idea of how loud the kick is in comparison to the rest of the kit – it is a little ridiculous. The album closes with a disappointing and abrupt one-minute affair, Ghoul’s cover of Funerot’s “1-900-DTH-LINE”. To close the EP with a cover of a one-minute song almost feels pointless, and just as soon as the track begins to get going, it stops – but I suppose this is hardcore, after all.
I suppose this record’s big issue is that it has been pretty well anticipated as the first release following Dungeon Bastards larger than just a single or a live album, and it does not nearly live up to that anticipation, instead playing like one of their throw-away releases like Intermediate-Level Hardcore or Wall of Death. Instead of carrying the momentum built up by Dungeon Bastards’ perfection, Ghoul seem to have taken a step backwards.
Overall, a rather disappointing release that could have been better. Some good music is put forth, but is let down by poor mixing and production. Though the drums are markedly better than on earlier Ghoul releases such as their 2002 debut We Came for the Dead!!! as well as more recent releases like Nazi Smasher, where the snare sounds like a plank of wood inside a pillow, they suffer either from over-the-top compression or a very loudly mixed, poorly-sampled kick drum. The vocals are buried beneath guitars that are already very loud, but the addition of reverb on the vocals pulls them backwards more; but generally speaking, the mixing on this album is a notch below what I would expect from Ghoul at this stage in their career.
4/10
Ghoul’s Noxious Concontions drops on the 2nd February and can be pre-ordered here.