ALBUM REVIEW: Rose Thorn Necklace – Ghost Bath

GHOST BATH are finally back on track. After returning from what founding member and sole constant Dennis ‘Nameless’ Mikula described as the worst tour he’s ever been on, leaving him with extreme depression after two continuous months of physical illness, the black metal outfit have managed to haul themselves into a place more reminiscent of their position pre-pandemic, with Mikula happy that he has a balance of 3-4 tours a year with extended periods of isolation. However, it’s the trials and tribulations that occurred in the three years following 2021’s Self Loather that have helped craft Rose Thorn Necklace, the band’s fifth studio album.

As a band often lauded for being a leading figure in the landscape that would become post-black metal, it’s not overly surprising that GHOST BATH are continually pushing boundaries and jumping from one extreme to the next across this record.

Whilst opening interlude Grotesque Display is a swirling mass of ambience that evokes the rushing wind, sweeping synths and latterly haunting piano, the title track opens with clean picked guitar lines, descends into anguished black metal with Mikula shrieking indistinguishably above the maelstrom and finishes with a short guitar solo straight out of the JUDAS PRIEST scrapbook. It’s a peculiar mix, but one that works in its own, twisted way, something that continues throughout a release that is incredibly layered for something only 36 minutes in length.

What it does mean, however, is that Well, I Tried Drowning doesn’t quite stand up against its peers because it’s more straightforward and, by extension, less interesting, especially when instrumental Thinly Sliced Muscle Heart shimmers with psychedelic keyboards and melancholic guitars and Vodka Butterfly samples the uncontrollable sobs of a woman with what can only be described as a drum ‘n’ bass beat underneath; it then jumps straight back into the double bass kicks and low gutturals that had preceded it.

As the album begins its final third, Stamen and Pistil continues to plumb the depths of the morose with its unsettling combination of despairing howls alongside synths that sometimes embody the mid-80s pop scene, Needles represents another stylistic sixpence turn in the guise of flowing water and a piano tainted to sound like it’s coming through the trumpet of a gramophone, while closing track Throat Cancer is expansive, sprawling and brings all that has come before it together, moving gracefully through all manner of elements on its way to the finish, from isolated guitars to distance howls of sorrows and high brow keyboards that pulse and give way to the sound of a police siren.

There is an overriding sensation that it won’t take long for someone to decide whether they’re full in or out with GHOST BATH, should this be their introduction to Mikula‘s warped creativity, but one thing’s for certain: those who embrace this are going to potentially find their new favourite band. Walking so the likes of OATHBREAKER and CHAT PILE could run, Rose Thorn Necklace proves there’s still plenty left to give, and their leading man’s vision to ‘really explore some disturbing things…and tie all of those together’ is realised impressively.

Rating: 8/10

Rose Thorn Necklace is set for release May 9th via Nuclear Blast Records. 

Like GHOST BATH on Facebook.