Dungeon Bastards

Ghoul have made their name as a hugely distinctive band, a cartoonish Discworld-esque place called Creepsylvania forming the brunt of the lyrical force, while crossover thrash and grindcore roots do battle with eccentric interjections from rockabilly, surf rock, and other avenues. I never got into the earlier material that much, seeing as it owes a greater debt to death and grind styles that have never made up the meat of my listening habits, yet everything from Splatterthrash onwards has hit the spot pretty well. Although the Californian creeps seem to be taking plenty of time between full-lengths (5 year gaps now the norm), Dungeon Bastards still contains enough material to entertain until more comes along and remains the only album which the new Fermenter and Dissector have played on. Yep, I'm pretty confused about why the new members take on the pseudonyms of the old ones.

What we get on this fifth full-length may at once be the heaviest, the most accessible, and the least Ghoul-ish of all the quartet's material. Thrash and death riffing styles do battle with some features of grindcore - particularly the diverse vocals and sudden tempo changes - while the specificity of Ghoul's world is dialled back to some features of the first and last songs, plus a large dose of the lyrics. As a download customer of the Ghoul franchise, I've usually paid less attention to the storyline of the songs and focused more on the creativity of the music, which is where I notice the most obvious streamlining of Dungeon Bastards. For instance, I could easily see fans of general thrash such as Testament or Exodus get into the squarer songs. 'Ghoulunatics', other than a few standout melodies, goes down a route similar to Tempo of the Damned, which goes to show how some of the band's most outré ideas have disappeared. On the other hand, that doesn't prevent the sharpness of the Californians slashing at the listener, 'Bringer of War' scything through a deadly death thrash introduction that hits all the harder after the narrative and chugging of 'Ghetto Blasters'.

While I'm obviously disappointed that Dungeon Bastards aims at a larger audience, it helps matters that Ghoul didn't overlook hooks in the process. A nifty thrasher with several members contributing vocals, the colourful 'Shred the Dead' shows the direct approach of the quartet as it once was, proving especially memorable when the gang shouts appear, as one might expect. The closer 'Abominox' is conspicuously the only song over 5 minutes and leaves a lasting impression due to a tremendous outro that starts around halfway through, just coasting on one massive riff like the closing theme to a movie, and I'd say the band evoke something mildly cinematic at their best. Then, if you can prevent yourself from joining in with the chorus of 'Word Is Law' when it opens "Hail Creepsylvania... Hail me!" then you likely can't put your tongue in your cheek, or just plain don't have a tongue. That sense of irreverence still sets Ghoul apart from generic latter-day thrash. On the other hand, those inspired moments feel rather sparse, several sections of a slim 35 minute listen ceded to narrative interludes and stock riffing patterns, though I'd hardly say that the cuts waste much time, slamming through most of them in around 3 minutes.

I'm not down too hard on Dungeon Bastards, since Ghoul keep providing a fun alternative to so much spiritless thrash, plus this steps up the slump of Transmission Zero. Then again, I don't even feel it challenges the Hang Ten EP in terms of creativity, even if the riffing and death metal elements have come right back into play, handily epitomized by the shredding 'Death Campaign'. Seems like Ghoul will just keep ghouling on. Here's to another full-length soon!