In many circumstances, heaviness is the name of the game. To put forth a performance that’s intense and simply overwhelming is what many corners of the underground make an undeniable living off of with all sorts of bands constantly flexing and showing off their prowess in ways that always ensure we are given a steady stream of magnificence and magnitude in some form or another. Yet, there’s always something to be said for an act that manages to accomplish that and a little bit more in ways that not all that many are able to find a solid balance to make for a work that’s dynamic but feels organic in nature. Within their latest offering, the instrumental act of A Ghost in Rags pulls it off in stupendous fashion.

There has always been something special about an instrumental approach. While music has long been amorphous for all sorts of reasons, it has always been especially true for instrumental creations for the experience varies extremely from one listener to the next with each visual unique to each person that finds themselves before such works, and what I witnessed within the sprawling expanse of the thunderous, roiling realm of A Ghost in Rags crafted within “Solfatara” is nothing short of exceptional. Not often enough do we see sludge brought together with the world of post-metal and post-rock especially in a wordless embodiment, and it’s throughout each of the five tracks offered here that A Ghost in Rags does a gorgeous job at showcasing the overwhelming potential that such an approach can have. Brimming with light and character as well as darkness and sorrow, “Solfatara” quickly takes on a life of its own. A lurching and monolithic creation that revels in its smallest moments amongst the cataclysmic power that A Ghost in Rags wields with terrifying capacity, what we have here brings together only the finest aspects of every approach taken here with this particular corner of the underground given extreme justice in every possible form. A new world boils to life at the very will of “Solfatara” with flowing lava that creates new opportunities through brutally primordial means that ensure a fresh beginning via overwhelming power.

There cannot be life without death. Light without dark. Dichotomies that are constantly pulling on each other in the depths of our realities where we choose to accept them or not. A Ghost in Rags plays on these in tremendous form in such a way that feels near tear-inducing as the depths of this creation tug at the very fibers of your soul. Never pulling any punches nor missing any opportunities, “Solfatara” offers much for those willing to follow the work into such churning aberrations whose sight and strength is not something to take lightly lest you find yourself vanquished and consumed by such force that can only be considered antediluvian.

LISTEN to “Solfatara” on Bandcamp here.

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