File of Ghosts
The Gates (demo)

December 2009
Released: 2009, Self-released
Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

"Someone makes a lo-fi metal shit in a garage, with a rotten recording system and cheap instruments. THE GATES 2009 is my first CD for this project...".



Well, at least someone is completely honest about what to expect from his one-man project. Some honesty points for that straight statement anyway even if it´s the actual music that should count here - and not any written words of what you are or are not.



File of Ghosts´ stuff could be described as a hybrid of grinding death and black metal added with some experimental elements that is nowhere near as bad as I originally expected it to be in the first place. The thing is that I have always been very skeptical regarding these one-man project bands, as most of them have been relatively failed attempts to impress, lacking simply enough skills and know-how to handle all instruments ordered by just one man.



Sami´s ´hobby project´, File of Ghosts, has some good things involved within his perversions to mix all these ingredients together into one bigger puzzle. The songs are actually quite well structured and thought out, spiced with some catchy choruses, piercing yet grinding riffs, occasional somewhat atmospheric keyboard parts and so on. Especially songs like “The Gates” and “The Master of Sorrow and Pain” seem to give me more pleasure than the other songs on this sort of garage demo for displaying some true fury and mental distortion to come out as extreme and punishing to our faces as they do. What disturbs me mostly about this demo is not this lo-fi, below average sound quality, but a cold and robotic drum machine sound that annoys me every time when I hear it used for some recording. I hope if Sami is going to continue with his project on a more serious level in the future, he could at least consider playing the drums by himself, or alternatively hire some other guy to play the drum parts to give a more human touch to the final outcome.



I bet the fans of more extreme metal fans may find at least some listening pleasure out of File of Ghosts´ songs – the ones into death to black metal and grindcore, I mean. For what this is it, put together by just one guy, it deserves some amount of fair appreciation from each of us.