Like a horror comic book coming to life,
Ghoul is dead seriously the funniest band set to perform on Friday night at the
Maryland Deathfest. Their performance is just as much about the songs as it is about the show. Appropriately this group is just coming off of a tour of smaller venues with felllow goremongers
Gwar. Ghoul will be just as fun, but probably not quite as messy.
Hailing from the land of Creepsylvania (or Oakland, California), Ghoul doesn't have members so much as it has characters. The musicians performing as those characters have also played, without costuming of course, in other notable metal bands. Currently those characters include vocalist and bassist Cremator (Ross Sewage, who has appeared in bands like Exhumed and Wolves in the Throne Room), vocalist and guitarist Digestor (Sean McGrath from Engorged, Impaled and others), guitarist Dissector (Dan Randall, from Born Dead, Desolation), and drummer Fermentor (Dino Sommese, who has been in Dystopia, Lachyrmose and others).
In addition to the musicians, this group travels with a host of other characters who may show up to torment to audience. Ghoul's arch-enemy is Kill-bot, a 10-foot tall bloody metal monstrosity with infrared eyes. The homicidal werepig Mutant Mutilator may be roaming the crowd on the hunt for nu-metal and post- metal posers who may be lurking among their fans, which they call numbskulls. The Curio Shoppe Owner will be on hand to provide the coffins, or maybe he's just the merch guy.
Aside from the special effects and the showmanship, Ghoul offers head-bang-inducing, honest-to-goodness traditional thrash metal with a good bit of fantasy, comic book storyline and tongue-in-cheek humor thrown in. You will have a smile on your face, right before they kill you.
Enjoy this video, made in part by
Agalloch drummer Asesop Dekker.
