Ghoul – Noxious Concoctions Review

Everyone’s favorite splatterthrashers return with a new EP in Noxious Concoctions, a five-song, twenty-minute blast of their signature bloodsoaked death/thrash/occasional surf-rock. If you’re no stranger to Creepsylvania – if you’ve kept up with Ghoul for any significant portion of the last quarter-century or so – you pretty much know what you’re getting with Noxious Concoctions, but then again, you should be more than okay with that. Catchy riffage, guttural gurgles and midrange gore-metal snarls, a goofy tongue-in-cheek b-movie aesthetic that’s so maniacally gleeful that it’s almost entirely irresistible… It’s all Ghoul, and it’s all present and accounted for.

Opening with a decidedly non-Christian prayer, “The Eyes Of The Witch” rides an infectious groovy riff before a tremolo-ed surf-rock guitar motif enters, and the whole thing ramps up into a seriously rocking thrasher, buoyed further by some tasty guitar interplay from Dissector and Digestor. The title track and “Shotgun Gulch” sport similarly-sized hooks – I dare you not to snarl along with “noxioussss… CONCOCTIONS!” – the former the album’s most uptempo thrashing, and the latter operating in crossover territory, with Noxious Concoctions’ most surf-y moment in a mid-song break that sounds like the Ventures From Hell. The closing cover of Funerot’s “1-900-DTH-LINE” is fun, the most accessible tune on hand and one clearly suited for the Ghoul treatment.

So, after all that, here’s the thing about music critics: We love to write a whoooole lot of words on our virtual pages here, deep(ish) thoughts about the concepts and the art and the importance or the lack of any and all of that. That type of pontification is an art in itself, truly, and I’m in awe of anyone that can do it well.

And then after even that, here’s the thing about music: Sometimes, it doesn’t have deep(ish) thoughts, and sometimes it doesn’t need them. Sometimes it’s more than enough that it just rocks, rips, rollicks, rolls, rages, and … well, whatever other alliterative words you like. That’s not to say that Ghoul isn’t smart, because nothing they’ve ever done is dumb – but it’s more that, no matter how much you think about it, this type of splatterthrash boils down to one factor: It’s fun as hell. It’s energetic, and it’s instantly accessible. It’s funny, slightly silly (I mean, there’s a song called “Ratlicker,” after all), and yet seriously well crafted, well performed, well done. I could sit here for hours and ascribe various levels of greatness to Ghoul, but the simple fact is this: Ghoul rhouls, kids.

If fun thrashing madness gets your blood pumping, then here’s one that’s definitely for you. Saddle up and mosey on down to Shotgun Gulch.