Their typical signature based on layered, reverberant guitars and processed acoustic eerie ambiences are always catchy, elegant and brilliantly brought to the fore.
Faithful to its original style of predilection, The Norwegians of Taphephobia are back with a a collection of mighty introspective soundscapes in a darkly melancholic vein. I consider Access To A World Of Pain (Greytone, 2010) as their milestone in the genre but this new effort also reveals great dose of bleak and rumbling atmospheres, dolorously post-romantic and shadowy emotional, also enriched by new compositional elements. Their typical signature based on layered, reverberant guitars and processed acoustic eerie ambiences are always catchy, elegant and brilliantly brought to the fore. A beautiful mournful meditation on tone colors prevails all along the album. The whole release is also a bit more mainstream, more gently moving than their previous efforts, sometimes reminiscent to instrumental shoegaze dream ambient. The album has a vast palette of sonic ingredients, passing from enveloping utter grey dronescapes to more detached and minimally expressive if not imploring moods. An intoxicating journey of mysterious and achingly melancholic sounds that is well recommended for fans of Shrine, Troum, Maeror Tri, Windy & Carl, Stars of the Lid. A perfect introduction to those who are new to the music of Taphephobia.
Ghostwood is available on Cyclic Law.
