Within the broad church of metal and its many offshoots – rock, doom, stoner and all the rest – it remains a minor thrill to stumble across a group who seem to exist at a slight tangent to everything else. Crumbling Ghost is one such anomaly. Crumbling Ghost are not newcomers. They’ve been operating for some time, releasing records sporadically, “Four’ is in fact their fourth release.
Along the way they’ve accumulated a fervent coterie of followers, not to mention the occasional nod of approval from tastemakers such as Stuart Maconie, Stewart Lee and Tom Ravenscroft.
And though they’ve appeared at Roadburn, shared stages with Hawkwind and even Damo Suzuki, they remain (possibly by design) curiously under the radar. That might change with the quite wonderful ‘Four’ The group’s core idea is deceptively simple: traditional folk material refracted through the haze and heft of heavy, fuzzy stoner rock with a chunk of psyche and a smattering of doom.
Fairport Convention with fuzz. Trees with heft. A pastoral Sonic Youth. Musically, it’s a combination that really does work, and it’s delivered in some style too. Folk and metal/heavy rock do have a connection of course, just look at Green Lung and their ‘folk horror’ infused musical universe, but Crumbling Ghost are a very different beast.
‘Four’ amply and beautifully demonstrates that when it comes to ‘folk horror’ there’s nothing quite as horrible as folk … Here, the horror such as it is, and it must be said, the moments of light, comes not from theatrics, but from the songs themselves – which, after all, is where it’s always lived.
“Four” marks Crumbling Ghost’s long‑awaited return, arriving a decade after “Five Songs“. The album continues their signature fusion of traditional British folk narratives with heavy, fuzz‑laden stoner and doom rock.
Taken from the album “Four’ released on August 7th 2026
The Fat Angel Sings 