Review Summary: A young Crib45 already begins to show promise on their debut EP.
Before Crib45 brought on the gargantuan post-metal sound of their 2014 album
Marching Through the Borderlines, they played a much more melodic brand of post-metal. Their debut EP
The Ghosts Among Me is essentially an expansion of the title track into an EP that explores the sound that track channels. It’s easy to see why this is the centerpiece of the entire EP too, as it encompasses everything the band was trying to go for. The whole track has a very gothic vibe, with nifty additions like wind instruments in the mid-section and really showcases the band’s uncanny ability to switch between softer and heavier passages. Harsh and soft vocals exchange the spotlight in beautiful fashion, with the lyrics portraying a tortured and dark tone, full of self-reflection and regret to set the mood.
While the title track itself constitutes a third of the EP’s running time, and even appears on their later full-length
Metamorphosis, there is more than enough to love here on top of it. “As I” brings keys into the mix and focuses even more on the chorus-driven structure that the title track only scratches the surface of. The finish on this track is also gloriously heavy. “Beyond the Reach of Repair” is another catchy offering, with the softer vocals taking a more prominent role this time and emotional wailing guitars weaving in and out of the song. Both tracks show a band that is well beyond their years in terms of pacing a song.
The Ghosts Among Me is overall a much smoother and more melodic version of Crib45 compared to the colossal sound that makes up their 2014 album. Its consistency works in its favor, but you can tell the band was still playing it safe and not taking risks quite yet, so there are a lack of earth-shattering moments that the legendary post-metal epics tend to have. However, a solid display of post-metal out of Finland nonetheless and some pretty decent ghost boobs on the front cover too as an added bonus.
