Owl – Ghosts Of Summer Review

Bonn, Germany’s Owl has spent more than a decade exploring the spectrum between extremely heavy doom/death and spaced out ambience, with most releases blending the two to a certain extent. Multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Christian Kolf (Valborg, Labyrinth of Stars, etc.) ‒ joined as always by drummer buddy Patrick Schroeder (Klabautamann) ‒ has an almost Devin Townsend-level appreciation and knack for both colossal heft and expansive texture, no matter where Owl’s music falls on that aforementioned spectrum.

Their latest EP Ghosts of Summer falls on the heavy side of the Owl sound—the ludicrously heavy side, it must be said. Here Owl drops a good amount of the doom from their death/doom, instead opting for a lot of hyperblasting material spliced in with moments of rather infectious monolithic riffage. The latter is where the band’s doom still stands out, while the former pushes the band the closest they’ve ever been to black metal. But it’s the texture of the keyboards and other light electronic elements that provide it all a depth not frequently heard in such styles. It stops short of SYL’s industrial death metal, but there’s still a relevant comparison to be made in the effective use of filters on Kolf’s haggard roar, the precision of the guitar tone, and other textural elements like the clean singing in “Hieroglyphic Veil” being produced in a way that makes it seem almost imprisoned or buried.

Of course, it’s still the almighty riff that rules the day. During the opening title track, the blasting parts provide a kind of suspended tension before the tune gets to clobbering time, whether that comes in the form of direct, moshy beatdown riffs or some stop-start Chaosphere action. The Meshuggah comparison is just as simultaneously apt and misleading as the SYL one, but still notable. Owl eschews the rhythmic trickery, but several of the rather irresistible Big Riff moments clearly owe a small debt to the duo of Thordendal and Hagström in their rubbery and sleek qualities. Nowhere is this more evident than during closer “Cryptid,” which uses Owl’s doomier side to deliver a series of riffs so wickedly cool and gargantuan in musical mass they have an event horizon. It really is that huge and magnetic, and is made all the more effective by a killer (and pretty harrowing) guitar solo from guest Sebastian Müller and an ambient electronic last few minutes that provide an effective reflection for the full EP.

For established fans of Owl or the wider Zeitgeister family, Ghosts of Summer is a no-brainer, but it also deserves an ear for fans that appreciate a somewhat off-kilter take on multidisciplinary extreme metal and/or just like their riffs with more pull than Jupiter’s gravity well. So heavy you’ll need to inspect your home’s foundations after playing on the big boy speakers. So fun you’ll gladly pay for the repairs.