Born A Ghost’s new EP Stairway to an Empty Room is a heavy album. Given that this review is being read on a heavy/extreme music website, that seems obvious. Why write a review for an album of easy listening? The songs on Stairway to an Empty Room will sound familiar to fans of bands like Neurosis or Inter Arma. While not too musically different than their influences, Born A Ghost perform this kind of music very well.
Heavy isn’t just a sound though. It’s a also feeling or a mindset. It’s gravity pulling us down physically and metaphorically. Becoming weighed down by feelings or circumstances can happen easier or quicker than expected. Awareness of mental health or addiction and getting treatment for either is a reality that we could all face at some point.
What differentiates Born A Ghost though from their influences is their desire to use heavy music to communicate these heavy feelings. Each on Stairway to an Empty Room tackles it’s own variety of personal hell. The band addresses topics like addiction, mental illness, and suicide. These are set to tar thick riffs and a rhythm section moving through molasses. Their particular brand of sludge perfectly expresses the feelings of heaviness and the dark subject matter in their lyrics.
Stairway to an Empty Room is a musical expression of bleak subject matter. Born A Ghost explore topics that clearly affect themselves, family members, and those around them. This isn’t cathartic music though. This music acts a window into a world weighed by things beyond control.
– Dan M
Stairway to an Empty Room is available now on the band’s Bandcamp page. For more information on Born A Ghost, visit their official website.
Nine Circles 