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Father of the depths
Cleanse the earth with endless gloom
Place your hand on a dying sun
Father of the depths
Heal old wounds
Remove all ache
Tear out the burden from his heart
Chained to putrescent altar
Prey to the vermin and worm
Our flowers will bloom where his eyes once were
In the rotting bowels of the earth
Alone with his pain and his spite
Sits a monolith of despair
Plunged into an eternal nightmare
Pain
Spite
Anchored around the neck
And dragged into the gravity of a dying sun
Beyond the reach of mortal hands
Beyond the reach of a waking nightmare
Beyond the reach of mortal hands
Beyond the reach of a waking nightmare
Beyond our reach
Beyond our reach
Let winter take its hold and dusk entomb the sky
Let the depths swallow him whole and lay to rest a dying sun
Beyond our reach
Beyond our reach
about
Incarnate is the first taste of Ghostsmoker’s debut album, Inertia Cult - a record of earth-shaking sludge and blackened doom.
Following the release of their 2022 EP Grief, Inertia Cult represents an evolution for Melbourne’s Ghostsmoker. Their newly refined, collaborative approach to recording has allowed the band to hammer out powerful riffs, tighter song structures and further experiment with mood and atmospherics.
Comparisons to Conan, Thou, Bongripper and ISUA are warranted. Each of Ghostsmoker's riffs ring with monolithic, thunderous power, generating the kind of sonic intensity that only comes from years of amplifier worship.
Opening with haunting howls chased with bone-crushing riffs, the song wages a careful balancing act between loud, hulking instrumentals and haunting ambient inspired sections, each one underscored by slamming drums and wild lashes of fuzz from every string struck. The final product is both hypnotic yet rhythmically punishing, a balancing act that, on face, is hard to achieve.
"Incarnate is about being stuck in a loop of despair and not being able to move forward through your grief and trauma,” says Brunning. “During the very early stages of writing for the album, my brother passed away suddenly which had a significant impact on the lyrical themes on the record. Our drummer Brayden’s father also passed away while we were in the studio recording the album, and the rest of us rallied together to finish the job in dedication to our friend who was going through such a painful time in life, and his father, who was his biggest supporter. The above, the hurdles of everyday life, relationships failing, new ones forming etc all ultimately fed into making this album what it is."
Preparing for the release of Inertia Cult sees the band committing to a promotional tour for Incarnate's release across Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide throughout November and December this year. Following that, a full album release tour will take place in March 2025 across Australia, with the potential for overseas tours to Japan or Europe.
Don’t miss one of Australia’s finest up and coming doom bands. The tectonic heaviness of Ghostsmoker’s Inertia Cult is sure to ring in your ears for days, and is essential listening for loves of sludge, post-metal, doom and drone alike.
Ghostsmoker’s new album Inertia Cult is out 21 March 2025 on Art As Catharsis.
credits
released October 11, 2024
Written and performed by:
Ben Astbury - Guitar
Nathan Brunning - Lyrics and Vocals
Brayden Becher - Drums
Rhys Brennan - Bass
Very interesting mix of styles and influences. The cover art is an uncannily apt description of the result, so I won’t even try to add more on this topic.
A bit short, but obviously this needs support so that we can get more later. 😉 (And I guess this still required loooots of work.) Alice M.
Boy-girl harmonies, deep fuzz stoner baselines, and cosmic anthems—Turtle Skull nails everything Black Mountain used to do before BM got that divorced dad sound. Josh Steichmann
Brief but very intriguing, Śaraṇaṃ paints an attractive picture built on the rubab and other traditional sounds of the East. These fine instrumental compositions have the weight of history within them, with new life added through a modern interpretation. Michael Reilly
Seattle band Adzes craft sludgy dirges with elements of noise rock, post-metal and shoegaze, united by a staunch moral compass. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 3, 2020
Hashshashin's music is a bold fusion of sound and style, excitingly blending power with finesse to create sounds from another world. Urgent compositions possessing thunderous speed are swiftly countered by moody passages where darkness lies – each track attracts with unique attributes. Michael Reilly