Album Review: "Astral Possession" by Ghost Horizon

Astral Possession

A few years back, a friend of mine and I were out getting breakfast and shopping for records while my car was being repaired.

Over at ye olde record shop, I picked up Welcome To Hell by Venom. This was my introduction to Black Metal, though Venom isn't really Black Metal at all are they?

Wait, that's not true.

Way longer ago than that, I picked up a CD and an even older record store because the cover was cool. I'm not sure if I ever listened to the entire thing front to back, but I did put a some tracks on mix tapes I made for my bus rides.

Yeah, it was that long ago. It wasn't an album that stayed in my library, so I can't even tell you the name of the band, but the cover was black with blue figures on it. Does that help? So, needless to say, I'm not really much of a fan of Black Metal.

Ghost Horizon Member #1

I think I'm a Black Metal fan like I am a baseball fan.

Here in St. Louis, MO, if you're not a superfan, you're not really a fan of the Cardinals. You may have heard about our issues with baseball fandom here.

I go to about three or four baseball games per season between the Cards and the Gateway Grizzlies. I listen to the playoff games on the radio, but I don't watch or listen to 120+ games per year.

Because I get bored.

I've got some black metal in my library, but not a lot of it. There's some very good stuff, but this music has to be different for me to get involved.

Well, Ghost Horizon is different to me.

Certainly there are the standard Black Metal conventions, or else how would it be considered Black Metal?

Ghost Horizon Member #2

There are hard driving, high register rhythm guitars. There are the ever present Satanic keyboards and pianos.

But there is so much more to this than standard metal tropes.

Instead of the music feeling static, there's a strong sense of dynamics from arpeggios to melodic solos, to soul crushing extreme vocals.

Aside from the death metal influenced vocals, there are of course some large choral vocals in order to hugify the sound.

This is the first release from our new friends from Phoenix, AZ and the biggest complaint I have with this record is that there's just simply not enough of it.

I look forward to their proper full length release.

Release: 2/26/16
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal
Label: DIY
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