The fourth album from Estonia’s Freakangel comes with a massive power shift. How The Ghost Became sheds it’s emphasis on incorporating trance like branches into its dialogue for a dirtier and more hardcore sound. Decidedly more metal this album is music at a higher pressure.
Even with a simpler ensemble the aggression levels are through the roof. Heavier, dirtier but still just as steamy. It’s not so much a change in direction as a change in vehicle for the aggrotech style Freakangel first came to ground with on The Faults Of Humanity.
Yet even adopting a more metal approach to the compositions it’s not metal as we know it. How The Ghost Became retains the darkness of previous releases while amping their nefarious almost imposing sound within the industrial genre, and into monstrous proportions. These songs are what it sounds like to spiral down and out of control.
The greater emphasis on guitar motivated compositions are partly responsible for this. However the tight and crispy drum track augmenting the bombastic lower frequencies add more depth than an angel fish giving the riffs an otherworldly appearance. Combine that with Dimitrys’ vocals lighting up the musical environment, having dispensed with the masking found on earlier releases, this album has bite enough to suck your attention dry.
How The Ghost Became is an undying effort in horrific sounds. With witch house musings, more than trance or dance, and its metal anterior it’s nastier presentation brings a new post-industrial sound into the foreground while still suiting the needs of the ever changing dance floor.
8/10
