Moonlover
| Moonlover | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghost Bath studio album | ||||
|
Publication |
April 10, 2015 |
|||
|
admission |
2015 |
|||
| Label (s) | Northern Silence Productions , Nuclear Blast | |||
|
Format (s) |
||||
|
Title (number) |
7 (first edition) |
|||
|
running time |
42 min 06 sec |
|||
| occupation |
|
|||
|
Tim "Nameless" Mikula, Josh Schroeder |
||||
|
Studio (s) |
||||
|
||||
Moonlover is the second studio album by the US post-black metal band Ghost Bath from Minot , North Dakota and the second part of an album trilogy that began with the debut album Funeral released in 2014 and concluded with the third album Starmourner in 2017.
The album was released on April 10, 2015 via Northern Silence Productions, initially in Europe and was reissued worldwide in June 2016 after switching to Nuclear Blast . The first edition of the album has seven tracks and a playing time of 42 minutes and 6 seconds, while the second edition of Nuclear Blast comes with a bonus track and a game length of 49 minutes and 32 seconds.
The album received some media attention and was recommended by Trevor Strnad, the singer of The Black Dahlia Murder , among others . He later added Moonlover to his personal list of the Top 100 Albums of 2015.
History of origin
In 2015 the group, whose origins and identities were previously unknown, signed a record deal with the German underground label Northern Silence Productions , which confirmed Ghost Bath as an American band through the release of press material. The album was released in its first edition on April 10, 2015.
After the band switched to Nuclear Blast , Moonlover was reissued with the track Ascension . In addition to singer Dennis Mikula, Josh Schroeder , who has already worked with In Hearts Wake , King 810 and The Color Morale , was the producer . The contact to Nuclear Blast came about through Schroeder. The album was reissued exactly one year after its initial release.
The cover artwork was inspired by the work La Luna in 1989 by the Guatemalan photographer Luis González Palma .
Track list
| # | title | length | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | The Sleeping Fields | 1:26 | with Kathrine Shepard |
| 2. | Golden Number | 9:08 | |
| 3. | Happyhouse | 8:44 | |
| 4th | Beneath the shade tree | 4:47 | |
| 5. | The Silver Flower - Part I | 4:03 | |
| 6th | The Silver Flower - Part II | 7:33 | |
| 7th | Death and the Maiden | 6:25 | |
| 8th. | Ascension | 7:26 | Bonus song on the new edition |
promotion
From July 11-22, 2016, Ghost Bath played their very first national concert tour, which started in Canada and led along the west coast of the United States . This was followed by the first tour through Europe , which was supported at selected concerts by The Black Dahlia Murder , Converge , Dying Fetus , Goatwhore , Minsk and Thränenkind .
Media reception
Commercial win
The first edition of the album by Northern Silence Productions was limited to 900 records according to the New & Noteworthy column on Metal Insider . The new edition of Nuclear Blast was only able to sell 200 copies in the United States in the first week of sales of the album.
Reviews
Trevor Strnad, lead singer of the melodic death metal band The Black Dahlia Murder , described Moonlover in his column on Metalinjection as one of the biggest surprises of the metal year 2015. He compared the group to pioneers of depressive black metal like Silencer and Bethlehem , with Strnad also prophesies a diverse similarity to Deafheaven . He compares the singing of Dennis Mikula with the Japanese screamo band Envy . Strnad included the album in his personal list of the Top 100 Albums of 2015 at the end of the year, where it was ranked number 20.
Hang Mai Le from the online music platform Powermetal.de was impressed by Moonlover and writes that the singing oscillates back and forth between shrill and brittle, so that emotions such as despair and pain are made almost tangible. The critic is surprised that the band manages to evoke such emotions in less than three quarters of an hour without conveying one of the feelings too briefly. Captain Critical from Stormbringer.at also found positive words for the album and wrote that friends of post-black metal could be amazed.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kim Kelly: Vice : From Velvet Cacoon to Ghost Bath: the Curious Anatomy of a Black Metal Hoax
- ↑ Kim Kelly: Vice : Is Ghost Bath Really China's Answer to Deafheaven?
- ↑ Dayal Patterson: Metal Hammer : inside the mind of Ghost Bath's nameless leader
- ↑ Moonlover liner notes, inlay
- ↑ wookubus: The PRP : Ghost Bath, Underling & He Whose Ox Is Gored North American Tour Set For July
- ↑ Torsten Volkmer: Be subjective! : Ghost Bath: »Moonlover« European tour announced for summer 2016!
- ↑ Nuclear Blast : GHOST BATH - announce European summer dates 2016!
- ↑ Chris Colgan: Metal Insider : New & Noteworthy, June 10th - Dreamer's Disease
- ^ Matt Brown: Metal Insider : Metal By Numbers 6/23: The charts are anything but hollow
- ↑ Trevor Strnad: Metalinjection : revor From BLACK DAHLIA MURDER's 29 Underground Death Metal Recommendations for September
- ↑ Tillmann Rohlf: Metal Hammer : 29 underground death metal albums that you should know according to Trevor Strnad
- ↑ Trevor Strnad: Metalinjection : Trevor of THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER's Top 100 Albums of 2015
- ↑ Hang Mai Le: Powermetal.de : Ghost Bath - Moonlover review
- ↑ Captain Critical: Stormbringer.at : Ghost Bath - Moonlover Critique