GHOSTWOMAN - Welcome to the Civilized World

There is no reason for GHOSTWOMAN’s fourth album to exist. Welcome to the Civilized World is born to a broken world; a corrupt inheritance – Evan Uschenko and Ille van Dessel are under no illusions about its futility – and yet, this thing is alive. It’s an allergic reaction to the times we are living in: a welt that screams to be itched, the purging of a modern sickness they could no longer stomach. Beyond rationality, this record came from a place of gut feeling and a lack of any other option. Hell may have cracked wide open – but GHOSTWOMAN will not go quietly.

A head-on collision between the switchblade rust of Uschenko’s guitars and van Dessel’s caustic drum beats sees GHOSTWOMAN march on toward a shared oblivion - Welcome to the Civilized World is an album to be a pure distillation of their shared vision. From its earliest sketch to its final form, the only people to touch it were GHOSTWOMAN themselves.

Musically, GHOSTWOMAN are a sharper beast than ever: hypnotic spells of psych-grunge, decaying Americana and instrumental locked-horns. Uschenko, who presides over the vocals, insists they are not important. Much of the lyrics are nonsense, not written as much as abstractly sketched to feel out the shape of the music itself – but even in Uschenko’s dream grammar, the force and feeling are no less potent.