Band:	Ghost Brigade
Album:	IV - One With The Storm
Style:	Alternative metal, Post-metal
Release date:	November 07, 2014
A review by:	R'Vannith

01. Wretched Blues
02. Departures
03. Aurora
04. Disembodied Voices
05. Electra Complex
06. Stones And Pillars
07. Anchored
08. The Knife
09. Long Way To The Graves
10. Elämä On Tulta

For three records the Finnish band Ghost Brigade have provided a unique example of melodic death metal progression. Basing their studio efforts well beyond generic limits and engaging the structures and tones of post-metal, they continue to issue their original and outlying style in IV: One With The Storm, but to a similar result as any of their prior releases.

Despite their obvious stylistic differences from typical melodic death metal acts, they seem just as susceptible to replaying their own manner of song writing, adjusting little for their latest track-list. It's up to the listener to determine whether the band's formulaic replaying means overplaying in this case, but the standard of quality that the band has in composition is consistently followed out for another record with IV: One With The Storm.

The presentation of melody is continuous and thorough, but varies in tone and pace from track to track, at times more identifiable with the up-tempo delivery of melodic death metal à la Insomnium with a semblance of Swallow The Sun's melodic death/doom unison, at others closing in on a gradually expanded Cult Of Luna-esque atmospheric sludge texture. The song writing is highly melodious in much the same way as the aforementioned Finnish outfits, yet delivered in clearly distinguishing post-metallic derived contexts such as "Electra Complex," an adventurous number spanning over ten minutes and exhibiting the band's greatest distance from a melodic death metal association. "The Knife" is a representative example of the band's sludge tones applied to a melodic death song structure, possessing a melodic edge not dissimilar to material demonstrated by the affiliated band Sons Of Aeon, members Naukkarinen and Kiviniemi fulfilling guitar and bass roles respectively therein.

Though the overall aesthetic of IV: One With The Storm remains much the same as prior records, with its approaching a gothic nature of melancholic vibe in tracks such as "Long Way To The Graves," the song structures are again given certain freedoms in terms of atmospheric components and how the recursive riffs and melodies are fashioned. In this sense Ghost Brigade are actually quite resourceful, sensibly reutilising discernibly similar riff patterns in compositions which vary according to their placement within differing written contexts, which shift in and out of imperatives of atmospheric construction to heightened points of melody with ready and engaging will. Though their style is distinctly set in its own ways, the band are evidently flexible with it, which is no doubt the reason why each successive record never seems tired or stale and continues to deliver with an ably varied and excellently produced track-list in IV: One With The Storm.

The vocal arrangements, most especially the cleans, serve as a further distinguishing feature, receiving an unusual extent of emphasis for post-metal. Their alternative tinge bear a likeness to recent vocal incarnations of Katatonia and Blindead, presenting a duality with the intelligible harsher style which harnesses the growling of melodic death in a blend with a hardcore delivery best befitting the band's atmospheric sludge metal inclinations.

Ghost Brigade are certainly not a band to receive a post-metallic typecast, as their well established and distinctive discography finds an undeviating continuation in this record, both in terms of the standard of quality and its content.