Watercolour Ghosts - Watercolour Ghosts
Self released
Progressive Atmospheric Post-Metal
6 songs ()
Release year: 2015
Reviewed by Alex

If you listened to Australian Ur Draugr vocalist Drew Griffiths roar and squirm on that band’s The Wretched Ascetic or With Hunger Undying you could hardly anticipate the man can make for a clean vocalist. Even more so, to be confused with Jonas Renkse’s clean moans was an even further stretch to imagine, yet it is exactly what Griffiths does with another band he is a part of, also Western Australia Perth-born Watercolour Ghosts.

On Watercolour Ghosts self-titled independent EP release comparisons with Katatonia do not stop only at vocals. The band presents its own blend of art-rock, progressive post-everything ideas which fully hypnotize over the course of the four original cuts (the closer is an acoustic version of the opener Like Animals). Supported by a very distinct, individual, off-beat and often against the grain brand of percussion, Watercolour Ghosts plunge into a set of both flitting and fleeting, yet always restless, songs, which simply cannot stand still. Add a touch of pensive vocals, and if you wanted denser, more sped up Katatonia, Watercolour Ghosts could not have been a closer representation. The Australians are masters of ratcheting up pressure, then slightly backing off, first being a little predatory and dissonant, then cleaner and more vulnerable (Breathe). Where the band is more on with their beat, they come off less floating, yet more pained and suffered. Oscillating between soothing and brooding, between vibrating and tremolo guitars, between half-step ahead pushy and steady drums, the EP maintains the listener off balance with Despondent, Solipsism and Collapse. Applying pressure on and off, their despondency is evident, yet it comes with a dose of sweetness in it. One could get used to their dense delivery so much that acoustic version of Like Animals would feel too light, lacking the percussive rolls and distorted guitar jabs.

Once in a while I conjured the image of these clean shaven prep school boys with advanced musical education composing Watercolour Ghosts. It seems that the writers of such music could not have just been non-schooled and come from the streets. Whatever that part of the band’s story is the moniker these Australians chose for themselves could not have been any better. Furtive and drawn with aquarelle based paint is how the EP is felt. Fans of Katatonia or Ghost Brigade cannot go wrong with this music.

Killing Songs :
Like Animals, Despondent
Alex quoted 83 / 100
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