Gaahls WYRD: GastiR - Ghosts Invited (2019)

One of the most highly-anticipated and hyped albums of the year is the debut release from Gaahls Wyrd, the recently-formed band by former Gorgoroth vocalist and wine-drinking Satan enthusiast Gaahl.  The band previously released a live album, featuring covers of songs by Gaahl's other bands God Seed and Trelldom and a couple of singles to preview this album.

The album starts off with the traditional black metal stomp of "Ek Erilar" and one would be forgiven for believing that this was going to be just another Gorgoroth ripoff.  But things get weird and challenging fast.  "From the Spear" starts off fairly normally, but then Gaahl's vocals go from typical black metal shrieking to some impressive clean vocals, a thrash metal riff is thrown in and then the band heads in an almost Agalloch-esque post-black metal direction.  "Ghosts Invited" features some almost soothing, crooning vocals from Gaahl, a far cry from the style for which he is most famous.  And the offbeat sound continues through "Carving the Voices", which features some chanting vocals over surprisingly pretty melodies, sounding more like a black metal version of The Cure, before blowing everything up near the end. 

The second half returns a bit to more of a safe, traditional black metal sound with "Veiztu Hve", which is still kind of weird, but fits in well with some of the latter Gorgoroth material, though the group vocals near the end take an odd turn.  The Agalloch-isms return on the folky "The Speech and the Self" before giving way to the crushing riffs in "Through and Past and Past", which may be the closest the band comes to a speed metal track.  Finally, there is the sprawling weirdness of "Within the Voice of Existence" which is more of a mellow, plodding meditative track, featuring moaning and chanted vocals that could be saying just about anything.  Then a riff comes charging through and the chanting becomes more intense and frenzied, leading into the end of the song, and the album. 

The hype was well worth it.  This is a remarkable album that never veers too far into safe territory before throwing the listener for a complete loop.  Every listen reveals a new wrinkle to the music.  And it never goes too far in a soft or meandering direction, maintaining interest throughout the entire runtime.  I have not frequently been a big fan of Gaahl, but his new band really intrigues me.  This is a truly impressive, unpredictable album.