Album Review: Ghost Bath – Self Loather (Nuclear Blast)

Depressive black metal outfit Ghost Bath return with their brand-new album, Self Loather. The final piece in the Moonlover-Starmourner-Self Loather triptych, it will be released on October 29th, 2021 via Nuclear Blast.

Describing Self Loather, founding member Dennis Mikula (vocals/guitars/synths/lyrics) says:

This album was always a part of my creative vision. I had imagined this final record of the trilogy to be heavier, more devastating, dark, and vicious. It is by far the record most filled with hatred. I believe it is also the material most different from Starmourner that we’ve created. The three basic human emotions I wanted to capture were tragedy (Moonlover), ecstasy (Starmourner), and dread/hatred (Self Loather). While at the same time, all of these express depression and sorrow. I believe in this record we found our sound. I was finally able to unleash the full range of my vocals, using my lowest lows, to my highest shrieks.

It’s been a wonderful journey I’ve been on with Ghost Bath. From stumbling across them with the release of Moonlover, seeing them live a few times then having their quality enshrined with Starmourner. This is a band I’ve adored for a few years now, miserableness and all. So, it is with much excitement that I hit play on their latest album, Self Loather.

So what do we find here? Is it an album that can proudly sit amongst its brethren as another Ghost Bath classic?

Bursting with black metal life, Convince Me to Bleed comes in a ball of dark fury. Fast riffing, pounding drums and howling vocals, it’s harsh as hell and then, it shifts. What a monumental shift it is, Ghost Bath switching gears to allow melodic guitar parts to dominate briefly. It makes this as an opener, pretty unforgettable.

Hide from the Sun’s church-choir and crying makes for a very eerie start and it goes on and on, even with a touch of guitar to help make it more palatable. Then the rest of the instruments arrive and we get something firmer, heftier and bleaker. A piano outro feels a bit tacked on though.

From that to blistering black metal with doomy undertones, Shrines of Bone certainly does back up the claim that this is the darkest Ghost Bath work to date. No amount of melody featured in the latter part of the track can escape the gloom. Before Sanguine Mask showcases death growls and the heaviest of instrumentation to add even more dreariness to things.

There can be few complaints, it’s what Ghost Bath do after all.

The halfway point then comes and reminds you that for all their mighty black metal fury and miserableness, what makes Ghost Bath special are the brighter guitar driven shifts and this track has one of their best. Though Sinew and Vein might take the crown for oddest twist even if the chaotic nature of this track really does appeal.

I hope death finds me well is as despairingly loaded as the title suggests but importantly, it’s a piano piece only. A very mournful and impressive piece.

The black metal is back with some force on For it is A Veil. Where the riffs are sounding super-chunky and the vocal howling, particularly possessed. Whereas Unbearable is a high point in Ghost Bath’s brand of unsettling and drab heavy melodrama. Being the penultimate track, you feel as though this journey is coming to an end here.

…and end it does with a ‘second short of 3-minutes’ blistering ferocity in Ghost Bath’s incomparable way. More uplifting and more hopeful than most of everything else found on the album, although it’s just as heavy and dark as anything else.

Hopefully all those words answer the question asked at the start but just to emphasis it, Self Loather can proudly sit amongst its brethren as another Ghost Bath classic.

Ghost Bath – Self Loather Full Track Listing:

1. Convince Me to Bleed
2. Hide from the Sun
3. Shrines of Bone
4. Sanguine Mask
5. A Crystal Lattice
6. Sinew and Vein
7. I hope death finds me well
8. For it is A Veil
9. Unbearable
10. Flickering Wicks of Black

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