The Midnight Ghost Train’s self-titled full length album opens with a sample of a monologue detailing the ritualistic drinking of LSD in a Satanic ceremony before falling slowly into a bass line reminiscent of early Black Sabbath. As a jaded music fan forced to hear bad music all day, this is one of those records that sort of comes out of nowhere and makes you cock your head back and listen. The album continues to pull influence from early, blues-inspired metal like Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, but elements of modern stoner rock are more than apparent. The band avoids the typical song structures of early metal and adopt the loose, more organic feel of bands like Eyehategod or Sleep.

The vocals are typically delivered in a throaty, confident growl that that owes a lot to the Melvins’ camp of baritone rock vocals, but other times singer/songwriter Steven Moss merely hints at melody, coming across as a tortured, atonal mess a la Black Flag-era Henry Rollins. There are moments of vocals being pushed too far and the growl becomes tiring, reminding me of early of Kylesa, where the vocals were kind of just something that got in the way. However, like their metal contemporaries Baroness, the vocals aren’t the focus of the music, and the real attention is paid to the riffing and interplay between the players.

There are moments in this interplay where the album really hits its groove, though none of the song structures are nearly as complex as Baroness. The band is sort of touch-and-go in regards to structures. “The Swell” is nearly 8 minutes long, and the riffing gets pretty tedious at the end, whereas “Mustache” tops out around 6 minutes but is able to keep interest up the entire time. The sleepy intro for the song kicks up into a dirty, Southern rock groove around three minutes in, and continues to change up the riffs and rhythms for the rest of the song.

“They’re Burying Me Alive” is a Frank Miller-inspired spoken word track set on top of Southern gospel tones. The track feels a little kitschy, like it’s a sample from some Hollywood blockbuster, but it works well enough in the context of the album, and is an easy segue into “Desert Red”.  “Desert Red” is a sleepy number arranged around an acoustic guitar with a simple chorus-heavy guitar soloing along with the vocals and a simple cello part under the mix. Despite how understated the song is, it’s one of the high points of the album. The closer, “Woman of Hate”, is a slow, rambling song reminiscent of Harvey Milk in parts, with some good soloing, but feels a little forced due to it’s length.

The main thing with Midnight Ghost Train is that they sort of remind me of a Quentin Tarantino movie. There are moments of greatness that seem almost accidental due to their absurd attention to detail, but those moments eventually fade into the bigger picture and become lost amongst the filler. The effort is strong, but the band needs to self edit. This style of metal seems to be doing quite well in the wake of Mastadon’s success, with bands like Bison BC and Weedeater being able to sustain full tours that they weren’t able to before, and Midnight Ghost Train is almost there. Almost.

Review by Ian Wise

admin Ian Wise, Reviews Midnight Ghost Train