Prog Magazine Interview 2012
The Times Top 100 Albums of 2011
Opinionated Irrelevance
You know those times you have every now an then when everything you listen to seems uninspired, new albums you find just don’t grab you and your old collection has lost its punch from over-listening? Well if you don't get this I do every now and then, often like this year after utterly awesome gigs that leave you wondering how any album can stand up to them. Of late I found myself in one of those moods, thankfully however I then listened to this debut self-titled from Crumbling Ghost and that mood is gone, I have re-found the brilliance of music on speakers at home. READ MORE
Sonic Escapes - Interview
A little while back, SonicEscapes reviewed Crumbling Ghost’s eponymous debut album. The record was deemed “a wonderfully eclectic mix of folk, stoner, jam, and progressive elements” and was well received by our entire writing staff. Crumbling Ghost is currently in the recording process, and writer Erich Spiewak had the opportunity to pick the brains of these artists and discuss the new sounds that are in store for the band’s next record. READ MORE
A little while back, SonicEscapes reviewed Crumbling Ghost’s eponymous debut album. The record was deemed “a wonderfully eclectic mix of folk, stoner, jam, and progressive elements” and was well received by our entire writing staff. Crumbling Ghost is currently in the recording process, and writer Erich Spiewak had the opportunity to pick the brains of these artists and discuss the new sounds that are in store for the band’s next record. READ MORE
Oh my, where do I start with this album? Crumbling Ghost is a psychedelic metal outfit out of London, and they have some tricks up their sleeve. Their eponymous debut is a wonderfully eclectic mix of folk, stoner, jam, and progressive elements. As you can imagine, the result is hard to describe without the listener’s ear-balls, but I can assure you that Crumbling Ghost has prepared a near masterpiece with all of these ideas. READ MORE
God Is In the TV
Open with a fuzzy, fluttering flurry of distorted sound like being in the midst of bats and birds, lead track The Collector turns swiftly into a grand prog-folk-metal number, moving from lively sections into slower, trippier washes of descending chords, distantly hollered vocals and snowy ambience. John Mosley and Donny Hopkins’ guitars square up to one another nicely, Neil May’s bass burping along and Matthew Atkins’ drums are pummelled furiously. It’s a strong and intriguing opener, one that spider-like has a foot in many styles... READ MORE
Open with a fuzzy, fluttering flurry of distorted sound like being in the midst of bats and birds, lead track The Collector turns swiftly into a grand prog-folk-metal number, moving from lively sections into slower, trippier washes of descending chords, distantly hollered vocals and snowy ambience. John Mosley and Donny Hopkins’ guitars square up to one another nicely, Neil May’s bass burping along and Matthew Atkins’ drums are pummelled furiously. It’s a strong and intriguing opener, one that spider-like has a foot in many styles... READ MORE
As far as I can tell from the press release this band is either from London or Norwich or both, contains members of various obscure British rock bands, and has Matthew Atkins, runner of the Minimum Resource Manipulation label, as its sticksman. The music they're peddling draws from the traditions of British folk music and heavy metal, making a sound that is unmistakeably Anglian in nature. The searing riffs and hippie mysticism can't help but bring to mind bands like Hawkwind and maybe also Comus. It's a playful record, and very tuneful too, with the stomping grooves tempered to a springy bounce on tracks like Aggro Pronto. They have a good sense of how well a riff is welcome for, too. READ MORE
Crumbling Ghost’s rough hewn debut is a glorious mess of Seventies British prog structures, needling Krautrock jams, gut-churning doom metal riffs, and spritely modal English folk tunes. Perhaps there’s too many sketchy instrumentals, and second guitarist John Mosley’s occasional vocals are somewhat tentative, but The Collector, sounding like the German space-heads Amon Düül 2 playing a Fairport folk epic, and Blasted Heath, a sea shanty with Quicksilver guitar parts, show the Norwich quartet are full of East Anglian promise. READ MORE
The British do seem to have a reputation for eccentricity, or maybe that should be eclecticism and now we have a band worthy of the reputation… This is as rich an album as has been heard in the last forty years from a UK band, a quirky and quixotic ride through a broad and varied musical past. It would appear that prog is alive and well and doesn’t have to involve a million time changes and a thousand notes per second, it can beat with an emotional heart and throw melody in the path of musical wankery to trip it up READ MORE
While the name might sound like it belongs to a pub in an episode of rentaghost, this is actually a fascinating Norwich band, who have the balance exactly right between folk rock, eastern influences and the lighter touches of Electric Wizard.
As though we could say that this stuff blows all safe and sound atmosphere away with their energetic heaviness, which can let me call them dark stoner wizards. But that's not all. Sometimes invaded by their melancholic melody structure based on cool spirits of four talented cool wizards, as if they could save us from the dark side of the world. On the contrary, "Daytrip To Bungay" is a short and delightful one, with full of amazing Oriental pop essence. Terrific spiritual groove we can feel in it, and get slight momentary quietness of mind. READ MORE
This is a band that has existed for a couple of years and over this period of time have grown in strength, confidence and appeal. Their first gig was an enviable affair for many kraut-rock acolytes when they were invited to be the backing band to Can's Damo Suzuki. Coveting genres such as progressive rock, folk, and doom the band have since then found a way to breach inevitable obscurity by releasing this self-titled album on Withered Hand Records. So what do we have here with this release? READ MORE
Unique is a word that is often overused in the world of music journalism, as a lazy, throwaway description; however, Crumbling Ghost’s gem of a debut is just that. Signed to Withered Hand Records and living out their ‘lush green meadow’ fantasies in the very un-green London Town; colloquial imagery is offset by smouldering folk-rock and mid-tempo doom. READ MORE
Amazon User Review
I bought this album on impulse after hearing a track on Stuart Marconie's Freak Zone (BBC R6). I thought I was buying a heavy folk album, and indeed it is; but there is so much more going on here. This band hails from Norwich, which makes some kind of sense, given that you get a mix of heavy metal and folk on some tracks, kind of traditional folk-rock crossed with Black Sabbath - just the kind of thing you might expect to find in a rural pub-venue, even to this day, where punk never seems to have happened. (This sounds like a disparaging comment, I know, but it really ain't ...) READ MORE
I bought this album on impulse after hearing a track on Stuart Marconie's Freak Zone (BBC R6). I thought I was buying a heavy folk album, and indeed it is; but there is so much more going on here. This band hails from Norwich, which makes some kind of sense, given that you get a mix of heavy metal and folk on some tracks, kind of traditional folk-rock crossed with Black Sabbath - just the kind of thing you might expect to find in a rural pub-venue, even to this day, where punk never seems to have happened. (This sounds like a disparaging comment, I know, but it really ain't ...) READ MORE
