Red Fang album review – Only Ghosts

Portland, Oregon rifflords Red Fang turn to the dark side with new album

Red Fang album cover

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Red Fang’s video for Wires has racked up over three million views alone and even covering a song from kids TV show Fraggle Rock and reinterpreting Elvis’ Can’t Help Falling In Love via the medium of doom has only added to their cred, so recording an album with nu metal linchpin Ross Robinson will only get the instafamous stoner outfit from Portland, Oregon more cool points.

You’ll be pleased to hear that there’s no rapping on Only Ghosts but nor is this a cast-iron culmination of the aural assets that Red Fang have slung our way so far.

Plunging deeper into the groaning depths of the band’s darker side their fourth album unearths some surprisingly macabre moments and the gut-wrenching snarl and echo on No Air and The Smell Of Sound is the most salient reminder that Robinson is at the controls. But apart from Red Fang giving us all the willies, the rest of the album chucks out plenty of foot-tapping moments that seeinfectious tracks like Cut It Short gunning for setlist glory while energetic, but not very surprising, bouts of guitar slinging come straight from the Red Fang textbook. Orange Goblin this ain’t. It’s more like QOTSA waking up from a night terror.

Holly Wright

With over 10 years’ experience writing for Metal Hammer and Prog, Holly has reviewed and interviewed a wealth of progressively-inclined noise mongers from around the world. A fearless voyager to the far sides of metal Holly loves nothing more than to check out London’s gig scene, from power to folk and a lot in between. When she’s not rocking out Holly enjoys being a mum to her daughter Violet and working as a high-flying marketer in the Big Smoke.