Style: Instrumental Prog Rock
Review by: Mark
Country: Hungary
Release date: March 3, 2022
Instrumental albums can sometimes be tough work. For many, the vocalist is the primary vehicle of the emotion and narrative depth in a band’s sound, and this means that instrumental bands need to think a little bit differently about how they’re going to stick around in our memory. The biggest challenge can be sounding ‘complete’ to a conventional listener, and usually this means there is a balance to be struck between demonstrating instrumental talent and ubiquitous songwriting.
Shade Without Color from Hungary’s Ghost Toast is their fifth full-length attempt at the instrumental game, and I am delighted to report that many of the typical pitfalls of this sub-genre are mostly, if not wholly, absent. This album in its entirety is a feast of wonderfully jagged and angular riffs, drop-D headbanging goodness, and lush clean passages. All of these elements are usually well complimented with excellent synth textures that provide an extra layer of depth, and to top it all off, the band demonstrate a strong understanding of how to piece all of this together, using an eloquent sense of pacing to ensure that the listener is not overburdened with intensity or complexity.
Overall, one of the standout features of this album is the structure of the songs themselves, immediately demonstrated by the larger dynamics of the opening track “Get Rid Of”. It begins with an intense rising energy, pushed even further by short bursts of blast beats, and driven until it is staggered by some awesomely coarse, off-beat rhythms. This tumbles into a riff that feels like it could have come straight out of Alcest’s Spiritual Migration, and then our introduction is let fade into a dark, ambient passage that is reminiscent of Tool. An exhilarating two minutes and wonderfully representative of what’s to come. This push and pull is peppered across the entire record and is crafted well enough to keep the listener engaged, but never feeling like they’ve been yanked unexpectedly into a totally different gear.
Under the hood, the musical technicality is well hidden on Shade Without Color. Sections built using typical prog ingredients, such as odd rhythms or complex harmony, are usually transparent and never veer far from being catchy and, consequently, this makes the whole listening experience altogether more fluid and effortless. There are certainly moments that reward close attention, such as variations on repeated sections or Mastodon-esque licks dancing in the background, but the band never go overboard with this and strike a nice balance between accessibility and perplexity. There is also close to zero ‘noodling’, which allows moments like the guitar solo at the end of “Chasing Time” to completely radiate through, and stands as an album highlight for me.
Unfortunately, there are a few examples on this album where the band’s proficiency with songwriting is pushed to a shaky limit by overlong runtimes. “Chasing Time”, although hosting many great sections and a truly epic finale, lacks the overall grandeur to warrant its length and comes across a little bit disjointed. With this, one could argue that the album has not escaped every potential pitfall of instrumental prog rock. Stretching these limited ingredients to this length means it is often difficult for the listener to remember what they have just heard, and there is a lot of pressure on the additional layers outside the base instruments of drums, bass, and guitar, to carry any sense of noteworthiness. Of course, “Chasing Time” and “Reaper Man” as examples both contain sections that are fantastic on their own, but had they been reduced down to their finer parts then the album overall would feel less prolonged.
As a final note, I mentioned that Ghost Toast make great use of complimenting synth textures to add atmosphere to certain passages of their songs, but I feel their mix let them down slightly when it came to heavier parts. Quite often some rhythmic pad would poke jarringly out amongst the remaining instruments and this, regrettably, can take one out of experience somewhat. Although these layers work excellently over their cleaner, more ambient songs, such as “Leaders” and “Let Me Be No Nearer”, there are certain sections where I felt something more inconspicuous would have worked better. All in all, Shade Without Color is an album that has a lot of terrific content in it. Some very exciting riffs, excellently concealed proginess, and dynamic song structures, all of which are combined with the crucial additional layers of ambient soundscapes to create a feeling like nothing is missing. There is a mood and a vibe to this album (albeit a somewhat inconsistent one), yet at 67 minutes there is, unfortunately, a good bit of fat that could be trimmed. Highly recommended, just maybe not all at once.
Recommended tracks: Get Rid Of, Deliberate Disguises
Recommended for fans of: Tool, Alcest, Crippled Black Phoenix
You may also like: Echoes and Signals, Frakhtal, Scaphoid
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram
Label: Inverse Records – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook
Ghost Toast is:
– János Stefán (bass, sound fx, programming, acoustic guitar, keyboards)
– Bence Rózsavölgyi (guitars)
– Zoltán Cserős (drums, drum programming)
– János Pusker (cello, keyboards)
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