Rumpelstiltskin Grinder – Ghostmaker CD review

When you get past the rather childish/stupid band name and the extremely gimmicky album artwork – Ghostmaker by Rumpelstiltskin Grinder is an album made up of some rather promising and tuneful thrash metal anthems; that although may be cushioned by mountains of filler, really hits you hard the moment they kick in. An album jammed full of pummelling dual guitar lines, powerful, driving rhythm sections and roaring, demonic vocals – Ghostmaker is an album that is like a packet of dolly mixtures. You need to shift through the multitude of crap on it to get to the odd good song. Don’t let the band name Rumpelstiltskin Grinder draw you towards this album. They are not as interesting and unique as the name makes out.

The first four tracks on Ghostmaker are by far the best tracks on the album – making the listener think that the entire of Ghostmaker is going to be good as these heavily aggressive tunes. Tracks such as the foot stomping title track ‘Ghostmaker’, the drum driven punch of ‘Nightworms’ and the extremely fast ‘Fucking Wild’ are all musical barrages, bursting forth from your speaker at 250mph; not only blowing your mind with this vicious musical assault, but also blowing your ear drums clear off. These four tracks are by far some of the heaviest and most destructive tracks of 2012 so far.

Rumpelstiltskin Grinder may play on musical devices seen in thrash metal, but vocally its very similar to brutal death metal and grindcore, given Ghostmaker an extra musical dimension. Although the majority of the tracks on the album may be power chord laden and sound like they have been composed by a high school wanabee death metal band, the fact tracks like ‘Cold Haunting Death’, ‘You’ve Been Had’ and ‘Run Through the Bastards’ have been made heavier by including death metal growls, shows that you can actually polish a turd.

Compared to Rumpelstiltskin Grinder’s previous albums entitled Buried In the Front Yard and Living For Death Destroying the Rest – Ghostmaker has some of the bands worst material on it, and it’s not that the songs aren’t good; it’s just that there is nothing unique/interesting about most of the tracks on this album and there is only one word that can describe Ghostmaker… Generic. Tracks like ‘get Out My Grave’, ‘Desert Goblins’ and ‘Those Who Are Unseen’ sound like tracks that have been thrown together at the last minute to complete the album and this is clear as there is nothing musically or lyrically that stands out in them.

Although there are one or two killer tracks on Ghostmaker, this is an album that needs to be steered cleared of, down to the fact that nearly 75% of this album is quite literally dull. If Rumpelstiltskin Grinder isn’t going to write songs like on their debut then they should definitely stick to their day jobs. Apart from the band name, there is no longer anything interesting about this band! [5/10]

1. Those Who Are Unseen
2. Ghostmaker
3. Nightworms
4. Fucking Wild
5. Dripping With Venom
6. Cold Haunting Death
7. A Lurking Thief
8. You’ve Been Had
9. Iron Jaw
10. Get Out Of My Grave/Gigantic Graveyard
11. Run Through The Bastards
12. Desert Goblins