Review: NETHERBIRD “The Ghost Collector”

NETHERBIRD “The Ghost Collector”

This band was formed in 2004 and as I see they have no problem with creating new songs and releasing next stuffs. The fact is that the most of them were EPs or even singles, but they have in their collection also five full-lengths and compilation-album. This last one was released something like one month before just reviewing ‘The Ghost Collector’. I’m sure that it wasn’t any accident or chance. They came back from beyond last year, so…

By the way, guys write in biography that they’re from Stockholm. But I found information that their early days took place in other Swedish city, old trade center with city status since 1284 – Jönköping. Anyways, the fact if Bizmark (Pontus Andersson – guit, key, voc) and/or Nephante (Johan Ftidell – voc) moved to Sweden’s capital city or not isn’t meaningful in my opinion. The most important was, is and will always be music, don’t you?!? Guys describe their creativity using term “Melodic Black/Death Meta. I didn’t hear previous releases of the band, but in case of newest album I just can’t recognize any signs of this second sub-genre of Metal. With classic Black Metal connotes for me first of all vocal, but I’m old orthodox and it means that I probably have wrong belief here. It doesn’t mean that it has nothing with Black to do in my opinion! There’s some stuff which clearly and strongly connotes with just this kind of Metal.

However, Swedes play very melodically and in middle tempo. There happen a lot on all fields so it absolutely can’t be bored to anyone! Riffs change quite often, are developed and so on. It’s mission impossible to classify them. I mean, there’re some which you’ll connote with Black, but others sound even a little Doom or Heavy. We’ll hear some technical tricks or something what can be called short solos, too.  Quite important role play here keyboards. It’s mostly about beginnings of compositions where it sounds like piano and sometimes even a little like harpsichord. But melody is created mostly by guitars. Section isn’t as variable as guitars, but absolutely not monotonous. There’re some a little too long, when it’s about my taste, fragments without passages, but they happen not so often. Also cymbals are in use mostly.

I didn’t use any names when I wrote about drums’ playing and so on coz it seems that really many guests participated in session. It corresponds with what I was reading in press kit that guys decided on the beginning to create Metal without any regard or limitation when it comes to style or even line up. And there’s definitely something in that. I can hear influences of several sub-genres here, it has right dose of this atmosphere and so on. In the same time there’re many dishes here. So if you like a lot of melody combined with harsh vocal then I recommend you this stuff and band in general.