UMUR
Isolation Songs is the 2nd full-length studio album by Finnish sludge/ melodic metal act Ghost Brigade. The album was released by Season of Mist in August 2009.
The music on Isolation Songs continue with the melodic sludge/ metal style that was initiated on the debut album Guided by Fire (2007). Influences from bands such as Isis and Katatonia are still very obvious. The clean vocal lines sometimes remind me a bit of Kevin Moore´s melancholic/ monotone singing in OSI. Other than that the two above mentioned acts are still the prime influences. Like on the debut the songs are very formulaic in structure, which means simple vers/ chorus structures and not many surprises. There are both raw and clean vocals on the album and while the raw vocals do provide variation, I much prefer the clean vocals. Maybe it´s because the raw vocals are a bit too obviously processed, but they don´t click with me. The production is clean and professional. Maybe a bit too polished. The atmosphere in the songs is melancholic and when the band are best they really move me in the same way that a band like Katatonia are able to move me, but it doesn´t happen enough. The riffs are quite catchy and usually very melodic but again there´s nothing here you haven´t heard before and the band abuse their formula, which means the songs sound too much the same.
Isolation Songs is overall a very professional and well sounding album that I´m sure will appeal to a great many people, only this time I won´t be as forgiving about the lack of adventurous ideas and formulaic approach to songwriting as I was when I reviewed the debut album by Ghost Brigade. While in some ways the album does deserve a 3.5 star rating I´ll take away a half star, because I simply miss that the band dare to experiment a bit more with their sound. Isolation Songs come off sounding too much like a copy of the debut album and with a 56:44 minute long playing time it also overstays its welcome by about 10 minutes IMO. An almost hour long album simply needs more varied material to keep my attention. 3 stars are warranted.