Albertan deathrock denizens, Pøltergeist, have signed with independent music label Bad Omen Records (Watch Hazel, Satan’s Satyrs). The Canadian new musick trio will release its debut LP, “Nachtmusik”, on October 25th. Described as a mix of post-punk, traditional metal, and shoegaze from the frostbitten plains, Pøltergeist plays propulsive, crypt-kicking coldwave that charts a pathway from the catacombs to the cosmos.
Today, Pøltergeist conjures up the new track, “Ethereal Nightmare”, and its accompanying video, created by Jamie Ward.
“I consider us first and foremost a Post-Punk band, but heavy metal will always play an important role,” says front person Kalen Baker, citing the likes of In Solitude, Unto Others and Tribulation as bands who’ve explored the hinterlands between the two worlds. “When I got really into Goth Rock, one thing I noticed was that it was just as cold and bleak as black metal but in a different way“.
Having a longstanding love for the mystical metallic strains of Angel Witch, Cauldron and Blue Öyster Cult, Baker found himself moved by both Vancouver contemporary post-punk act Spectres and the epochal British melancholia of The Chameleons‘ “Script From The Bridge”, not to mention gothic and post-punk legends like Sisters Of Mercy and The Sound, and paradigms of the ethereal like Cocteau Twins, Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. Bolstered by the lyrical influence of spiritual progenitors like Moorcock, Lovecraft, Poe and the David Lynch of Twin Peaks, the sound of Pøltergeist was born; a gritty but magickal realm where crepuscular intensity is joined in psychic battle by metallic fortitude.
