Album review: Gungor "Ghosts Upon the Earth"

I marked down September 20th as a date to remember ever since I found out that one of my very favorite bands "Gungor" was releasing an album on this date. Their last album, "Beautiful Things" was a huge success for them, and has slowly become one of the very best in my collection.

In a world filled with a lot of "cookie cutter" Christian music which is often neither creative or memorable, Gungor stands out as simply good music in any genre. I do find it a little annoying that in a world that constantly wishes for tolerance that Christian bands constantly have to be defined with some kind of asterisk, but I suppose that is the world in which we live. Art is supposed to be an expression of who you are, and having the art come from one who claims Christ really shouldn't affect your opinion of whether the art is good or bad, but I suppose that's what we get for unleashing Carmen on the world.

The album is called "Ghosts upon the earth" and it will very likely end up being my favorite of the year, although there is an awful lot coming out within the next couple of months (Wilco, Coldplay, and John Mark McMillan, among others) that could change that. I am biased though, because I love a good story more than about anything in this world, and this album fits that description. Gungor tells a very chilling, and well crafted tale of creation, the fall of man, redemption, and our role in all of this like I've never heard it before.

So yes, I am very biased as I write this review. I am, more than anyone I have ever met, a sucker to a good story. I often feel like a 5 year old refusing to go to bed until someone tells me some new tale. But biased or not, I feel like this album is worth gushing over. 

I could really easily sit here and take you track by track through the story, but honestly the album does it so flawlessly that I simply don't need to do that. 

"Ghosts upon the earth" is not an album for an impatient person. It's not full of singles for those with a 3 minute attention span. If you want to sit back, feel something, and think a little bit. Gungor will do just that as this album really can best be defined as a story told with a flawless soundtrack. It really is as close to cracking open a good book as an album can come. Lyrically, musically, and creatively this is my favorite thing to come out probably since Sufjan Steven's "Come on! Feel the Illinoise!". Suffice it to say, I will be quite happy when my vinyl copy arrives in the mail in the near future. 

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.