Often some of the best music is that which is cloaked in despair, set to a dark, gloomy soundtrack. It’s nothing new, and bands have been fishing that creative pool for a long time. When artists like Chelsea Wolfe and King Woman are ruling the roost right now, it makes you wonder why anyone else would want to try and topple their mantle. Well, it certainly hasn’t stopped Austin, TX trio Brother/Ghost from throwing their hat in the ring of sadness with their new album ‘Buried’. It has taken them the best part of 4 years to compose the 7-tracks on display, and they have done everything in their power to create a dense, and brooding atmosphere.
Within moments of ‘Satan’, it sets the tone that spans the 7 tracks on ‘Buried’ perfectly, as it moves at a snails pace through thick bass lines before swelling into walls of distortion in the chorus. They have used this blueprint to craft each composition on the record, with the 8-minute epic ‘Cripple’, which takes over three quarters of the song before it even begins to lift up with a wailing vocal passage that adds an extra layer of sadness to it. There is a surprising shift in sound on ‘Causeway’, which while still containing a bleak narrative, carries itself like a Midwestern indie-rock song, albeit far more restrained and methodical.
Where ‘Buried’ seems to fall down though, is that while it is incredibly cohesive, it never seems to really get going. Perhaps an intentional move by Brother/Ghost so as not to upset the flow of the album, it begins to become a bit boring as it goes on. The tracks tend to blend into one another in a way that makes each one difficult to differentiate from the next, given that they all follow such a textbook formula as mentioned above. That said, they do end the album on a moment of greatness with ‘Blackdog’, which is bolstered by shimmering keys as the vocal takes a Nick Cave-esque turn, before being drenched in feedback and bringing ‘Buried’ to a harrowing climax.
While ‘Buried’ is not a perfect release, and slightly pales in comparison to releases this year by Brother/Ghost’s peers, it is still an album that its creators have poured their souls into, making it more than worthy of any listeners attention. There are more moments of promise and beauty than there are faults to ‘Buried’, and when it is really good, it is brilliant.
GLEN BUSHELL