Albertan deathrock denizens, Pøltergeist, have signed with independent music label Bad Omen Records (Wytch Hazel, Satan's Satyrs). Described as a mix of Post-Punk, traditional metal, and shoegaze from the frostbitten plains, Pøltergeist plays propulsive, crypt-kicking coldwave that charts a pathway from the catacombs to the cosmos.
Perhaps the most perfect distillation of the Pøltergeist style arrives with ‘Children Of The Dark’, a catchy, tempestuous rocker that also functions thematically on a dual level- not only as Kalen reckons “a call to arms for people who share a passion for underground music” but also arriving via a morbid angle to assault the iniquities of the modern labour market; a Stokerist-critique of late-stage capitalism, if you will, but laden with biting hooks.
“I consider us first and foremost a Post-Punk band, but heavy metal will always play an important role,” says Baker, citing the likes of In Solitude, Unto Others and Tribulation as bands who’ve explored the hinterlands between the two worlds. “When I got really into Goth Rock, one thing I noticed was that it was just as cold and bleak as black metal but in a different way”.
Having a longstanding love for the mystical metallic strains of Angel Witch, Cauldron and Blue Öyster Cult, Baker found himself moved by both Vancouver contemporary post-punk act Spectres and the epochal British melancholia of The Chameleons’ ‘Script From The Bridge’, not to mention gothic and post-punk legends like Sisters Of Mercy and The Sound, and paradigms of the ethereal like Cocteau Twins, Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. Bolstered by the lyrical influence of spiritual progenitors like Moorcock, Lovecraft, Poe and the David Lynch of Twin Peaks, the sound of Pøltergeist was born; a gritty but magickal realm where crepuscular intensity is joined in psychic battle by metallic fortitude.
‘Nachtmusik’ is true to Baker’s vision of ‘a kaleidoscope of emotions, sounds and ideas’. This is a record which, at heart may yearn for the spiritual realm of the 1980s, but with feet firmly treading the twenty-first century here and now. As storm clouds gather overhead, Pøltergeist’s journey into darkness is just beginning.
