Hi, everyone. Boothony Spooktano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Ghost Mountain album, October Country.

Here we have a new mixtape and the first release in a while from elusive, California rapper, singer, and songwriter Ghost Mountain, co-founder of the beloved Haunted Mound, a record label and collective, known for being the home to some of the most relevant artists on the underground horrorcore circuit these days, if you could even call it that. There's Buckshot, there's Turnabout, there's also Sematary, who we've covered on this channel a few times already. And what each of them do at its core is undeniably hip hop on some level with a Southern trap flair.

But it's often filtered through this very gritty ultra distorted production and horror-themed aesthetics; often nods as well to lots of underground and extreme metal music. Think something along the lines of an old-school Norwegian black metal album crossed with a trapaholic's mixtape. And yeah, after that, you will land somewhere close to what the Haunted Mound sound is. And despite efforts to really diversify it, especially on Sematary's last full-length LP, Bloody Angel, it still remains a pretty singular vibe with a niche but intense appeal for those who fuck with it.

Ghost Mountain, despite being a long-time affiliate of the Haunted Mound Collective, in recent years, he has been one of the least visible, which has generated a lot of rumors and questions among fans for years as to why. I mean, his last major project was a collaboration with Sematary back in 2020, Hundred Acre Wrist, and he hasn't really put out a formal mixtape or album to my knowledge since then.

But now we have October Country, which also makes for Ghost Mountain's solo debut as well. So you could say this moment has been in the making for a while, long-awaited even. But even with having time to really marinate, it doesn't prevent this album from being hit with at least a little bit of debut-itis and just generally lacking definition among the wide variety of influences it operates in.

I would say the biggest surprise, though, I was hit with going into this record was just how smooth the overall sound of it is. In its own way, it's pretty palatable for a Haunted Mound affiliated release. It's not quite as caked in sunburned distortion and punishingly blown out drums. So yeah, that was unexpected, but maybe not necessarily adventurous sonically in the grander scheme of things, because I feel like October Country offers a lot of derivative variations of sounds that I have heard quite a few times before, even though it has been a minute.

I mean, Ghost Mountain is most definitely more of a crooner than a rapper for sure. And a lot of the vocal melodies on this record have a emo rap quality to them. But if they were slowed down and backed with very woozy, downright dreary trap beats that had a creepy and murky tone to them, heavy on the synths and really bringing a goth twist, I would say.

In some ways, it reminds me of often overlooked internet age acts that operate in the goth field like Grave Babies or similarly gloomy rappers with also very online fan bases such as Bones. And surprisingly, in discourse I have read around this record, I've seen some people here and there bring up the likes of Salem, which, sure, I could see a grim goth rap/witch house parallel going on here.

Look, call this album what you want, honestly. What you can really rely on the tracks held within in this record for are a lot of 808 style drums; very dense, syrupy, slow beats in production caked in a lot of dust and grime; ghoulish lead vocals that are heavily treated with effects and layers – which I do think there is something to this combination of sounds and ideas, but it's still a pretty basic fusion of all of these things, and it doesn't make for the most versatile listening experience across the entirety of the album, even if Ghost Mountain has a knack for catchy vocal melodies here and there on tracks like the opener or "Stalks" or "Kevlar", because in its best moments, October Country is a record that is fun, is intoxicating, is subtly eerie, and also gives up the rap pretense and essentially starts dropping tracks that are like DIY dance demos for goth night at the club.

Songs like the title track and "Wayside", as well as "Highway Hex", the much more superior of the two Sematary tracks on this album, all fit into that lane. "Kismet" as well goes in more of a rock direction. It's like this warped drum machine slacker rock piece with very sloshy synths and cords that are equally dark and psychedelic, too.

But as decent as some of these highlights are, I feel like there are a lot of options out there if you're looking for something that scratches exactly these itches, and that it's going to take some work for Ghost Mountain to really generate something that is going to best any of that competition or transcend the audience of Haunted Mound fans that may not even know that they're really just listening to goth music on this thing.

Also, I haven't really addressed the low points on the album, of which there are several. For one, the deadpan, moaning vocal delivery that Ghost Mountain specializes in here only goes so far and gets tiresome after a while. Also, the pacing and tempo on "By the Flame", especially given this vocal style, is absolutely excruciating. Plus, the production on "Damien" is horrendously messy, especially when compared to everything else on the album beat-wise.

But yeah, overall, I feel like October Country is a start, definitely a start of sorts. But is it the best sounding album I have heard within the respective genre lanes it operates in? Not really. Is it one of the best records I think I've heard from the Haunted Mound collective? Not really either.

I mean, it's definitely cool and exciting to hear something slightly different from the label and to really see Ghost Mountain getting back into the swing of things after so long. In that respect, I understand the hype behind this release for sure. But beyond that, I don't know if this album is really bringing much else to the table, which is why I'm currently underwhelmed, but still looking forward to hopefully more growth down the road on future records. I'm feeling a strong 5 to a light 6 on this one.

Anthony Fantano, Ghost Mountain, Forever.