Phonebook Eater 7/10

A sense of hope, among nothing but shadows is what can be easily sensed by listening to "Until Fear No Longer Defines Us".

Ghost Brigade is a sludge metal/melodic death metal band from Finland, and “Until Fear No Longer Defines Us” is their third studio work, after two mediocre albums. But with this album there is a definite step forward towards a wider audience and towards a more mature sound, and has been praised particularly by fans of the genre, as one of the finest metal releases of this year.

Sludge Metal is a genre that has been pretty active, and has had tons of bands that incorporated it’s style in these recent few years. The more Atmospheric side of the genre is also very frequent in music, like it is in this particular case; there is a dark, guitar-driven atmosphere that often includes repetition. The moods can go from very light but very melancholy, to very heavy and distorted, with powerful growl vocals. While the calmer, cleaner moments resemble quite a few elements of Alternative Metal, the more brutal ones are nothing but strong Sludge Metal and Prog Death Metal. This formula is what might have turned some metal purists off, and it’ll probably do the same to whoever isn’t very much into Alt Metal. But the truth is that no matter what you think this band has talent, they write great, even catchy, melodies, and overall have a good musicianship and noticeable style.

As the album cover clearly suggests, the album has moments of rage and darkness, but also sad-sounding ones. The nature of the album itself can compared to a weak man who has an extremely tormented past and present and somehow he finds the strength to overcome all his dark fears and finally become a strong human being. It might sound corny to some, but a sense of hope, among nothing but shadows is what can be easily sensed by listening to this album as a whole.

The more delicate moments are extremely melodic, but still end up being somewhat beautiful, like the intro for the album. But mainly, UFNLDS is made of ten dark and sludgy songs with a good feel of alt metal, like I mentioned. Tracks like “Clawmaster”, “Traces Of Liberty”, “Divine Acts Of Lunacy” are good examples. But the band doesn’t avoid experimentation in their tracks; the longest of these songs, the near to nine minute.“Breakwater” incorporates many elements of typical Atmospheric Sludge Metal. “Grain” is one of those songs that also reminds of the most traditional ASM, because of it’s slight build-up.

“Until Feat No Longer Defines Us” is a very good album for Ghost Brigade, that shows promise and a hopeful bright light. I won’t guarantee that fans of the genre will dig it because of its straight-forwardness, something that usually does not belong in Sludge Metal/Prog Metal. However It seems like this didn’t bother anyone. An album I would recommend to anyone who’s into metal.

J-Man Until Fear No Longer Defines Us isn't a cheery album by any stretch - as a matter of fact, the amount of melancholy and dark atmospheres make it a rather depressing listen... but a damn impressive depressing listen, to be sure. Ghost Brigade manages to capture this melancholic atmosphere with perfection through powerful compositions, professional arrangements, and fantastic vocals. Until Fear No Longer Defines Us is the third full-length effort from this Finnish melodic sludge metal outfit, and certainly an album I'd recommend to anyone who enjoys the genre. If you're searching for something that's extremely melodic, yet still thought-provoking, challenging, and crushingly heavy, this is worth a look.

The music on Until Fear No Longer Defines Us is a mix of sludge metal, doom metal, progressive rock, and melodic metal. The extremely melancholic atmosphere and softer clean-vocal sections also lead me to think of modern alternative rock. Ghost Brigade is first and foremost focused on atmosphere, and whether it be on softer songs like "In The Woods" and "Chamber", heavy songs like "Traces of Liberty", or epic tracks like "Breakwater" and "Soulcarvers", the music is always melodic and quite beautiful. The main asset of Until Fear No Longer Defines Us lies in the sheer strength of the compositions, but the other aspects of the album certainly don't fall by the wayside either. Ghost Brigade consists of extremely gifted musicians with a knack for conveying plenty of emotion through their respective instruments, and the production is also warm and highly professional.

I was very impressed by this effort from Ghost Brigade, and I currently consider it to be one of the finest metal releases I've heard this year. Seldom do I come across an album as emotional and beautiful as Until Fear No Longer Defines Us, and hopefully this remarkable feat will put Ghost Brigade on the map for metal fans worldwide! 4 stars and a warm recommendation are well-deserved. If you like your sludge metal to be on the more melancholic and eclectic side, it's hard to go wrong with this stellar album!

Time Signature Divine act of lunacy...

Genre: sludge-doom metal / alternative rock

Ghost Brigade really manage to capture a sense of melancholy and emotional darkness on this album. They draw on the emotional landscape associated with genres such as doom metal, Gothic metal (a la Paradise Lost), melodic sludge metal and alternative rock of the more depressive and melancholic kind.

Musically, the combine the heavy riffage of sludge and doom metal with the clean guitar passages of depressive alternative rock, and to this they add the melodic leads of Paradise Lost style Gothic metal and also melodic guitar harmonies, all of which generates this very dark, depressive and some times desperate atmosphere.

The vocals are either growled or sung in a more grungy fashion, and this combination works quite well in relation to the dark nuances of the music itself.

If you like Paradise Lost-ish Gothic doom and melodic sludge metal (and depressive alternative rock), then you are bound to love "Until Fear No Longer Defines Use" by Ghost Brigade.

UMUR Isolation Songs is the 2nd full-length studio album by Finnish sludge/ melodic metal act Ghost Brigade. The album was released by Season of Mist in August 2009.

The music on Isolation Songs continue with the melodic sludge/ metal style that was initiated on the debut album Guided by Fire (2007). Influences from bands such as Isis and Katatonia are still very obvious. The clean vocal lines sometimes remind me a bit of Kevin Moore´s melancholic/ monotone singing in OSI. Other than that the two above mentioned acts are still the prime influences. Like on the debut the songs are very formulaic in structure, which means simple vers/ chorus structures and not many surprises. There are both raw and clean vocals on the album and while the raw vocals do provide variation, I much prefer the clean vocals. Maybe it´s because the raw vocals are a bit too obviously processed, but they don´t click with me. The production is clean and professional. Maybe a bit too polished. The atmosphere in the songs is melancholic and when the band are best they really move me in the same way that a band like Katatonia are able to move me, but it doesn´t happen enough. The riffs are quite catchy and usually very melodic but again there´s nothing here you haven´t heard before and the band abuse their formula, which means the songs sound too much the same.

Isolation Songs is overall a very professional and well sounding album that I´m sure will appeal to a great many people, only this time I won´t be as forgiving about the lack of adventurous ideas and formulaic approach to songwriting as I was when I reviewed the debut album by Ghost Brigade. While in some ways the album does deserve a 3.5 star rating I´ll take away a half star, because I simply miss that the band dare to experiment a bit more with their sound. Isolation Songs come off sounding too much like a copy of the debut album and with a 56:44 minute long playing time it also overstays its welcome by about 10 minutes IMO. An almost hour long album simply needs more varied material to keep my attention. 3 stars are warranted.

UMUR Guided by Fire is the debut full-length studio album by sludge/ melodic metal act Ghost Brigade from Finland. The album was released through Season of Mist in September 2007. Three of the members of Ghost Brigade played together in Finnish stoner metal act Sunride before forming Ghost Brigade.

The music on Guided by Fire is simple vers/ chorus structured and the songs are generally about 3 - 5 minutes in length. The main influences are Isis and Katatonia to my ears. As such the music is rather formulaic with few surprises but the rough sludge parts with raw vocals are complimented greatly by the darker and more melancholic Katatonia influenced parts with clean vocals. This is the kind of album that´s best the first 5 - 10 times you listen to it though and after that there´s simply too little meat on the bone for the album to to grow more. But when the quality is as high as it is on Guided by Fire that´s perfectly acceptable. The musicianship and the production are also of high quality so if you can live with the relatively simple songwriting approach but with great melancholic emotions this might be the thing for you.

Guided by Fire is a promising debut album by Ghost Brigade. I hope they expand upon their already very professional songwriting skills and take their music to more adventurous territories on the follow up. Then they would really have my attention. A 3 - 3.5 star rating is deserved.