ALBUM REVIEW: Ghost Of Toast – The Tomb Tones

Atlanta-based “kooky horror rock” band THE TOMB TONES are back with their second studio album Ghost Of Toast. Now if you’ve never heard of them before, and if the album title doesn’t give it away, their entire aesthetic and discography is made up of Halloween pop culture references and parodies of many classic horror shows like Tales From The Crypt and The Twilight Zone. In summary, it’s silly and cheesy, but a lot of fun!

Now, just to confirm how ridiculous this record already is, we have a bit of an ongoing story about the ghost of someone called Bill. Recanted in the aptly named Intro we are greeted by the standard creepy sounds of crows, an organ and maniacal laughing as a narrator tells the story of Bill who has come back to haunt us… because we made toast during the witching hour so now our piece of bread is haunted. Yes, this is a thing, yes, this is ridiculous, and yes, we love it. Moving onto Halloween Mart – a track made up of creepy, blues-infused guitar – this one perfectly sums up who THE TOMB TONES are which is just a continuous list of references to horror figures, pop culture facts and Halloween decorations galore.

That’s not to say that the whole album is just horror-comedy; highlights include Come On Let’s Go which is very much punk infused and, frankly, a lot of fun; and Wormhole which is a rock ‘n’ roll inspired track complete with guitar riffs and catchy “woos” that’s easy to bop along to. Furthermore, we swear we can hear the synths from THE PRODIGY’s Firestarter littered throughout. But of course, we can’t not mention the sillier songs, with further stand-outs including Googly Eyes which infuses both blues and soul into rock that has you swaying along but also giggling at some of the ridiculous lyrics, and Mr Babadookie which, well, we must appreciate a homage to our favourite gay horror icon.

Going back to the story of Bill, we are met with a ‘sponsor’ message during Miracle Bread from the production company that he now haunts, and we experience a sudden change in tone as they describe his death before going back to the cheerful tone that could be perceived as eerie without context but is ultimately quite hilarious. By the time we get to the, once again, aptly named final track Epilogue, all we can really say is “RIP Bill”.

Ghost Of Toast is obviously a tongue in cheek record in which no one takes themselves too seriously. As we keep saying, it is just silly but a lot of fun – sometimes that’s all you need!

Rating: 7/10

Ghost Of Toast is out now via self-release.

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