Hungarian progressive metal band, Ghost Toast, is releasing a their newest album on March 3, 2020. Shape Without Form, from Inverse Records, will be available in digital format as well as limited physical copies on CD.
While listening to Shape Without Form several facets immediately jump out at the listener. There is impeccable production values, thoughtful song writing, and neither of these crafts intrude for the sake of metal. Shape Without Form delivers plenty of heavy thrash guitars and double bass kickdrum while simultaneously adding the “experimental” elements that Ghost Toast is known for.
Special thanks to Joni at Inverse Records for arranging a one-on-one with the guys in Ghost Toast!
Slickster – Track #1, Frankenstein’s, mixes together a lot of different styles of the hard rock/heavy metal genre, but inlcudes some heavy thrash elements combined with progression influences. How did you compose this track and what were you thinking about?
Ghost Toast – The aim was to create an opening song that unites the two most definitive elements of our music – the score-type thing and the heavier, riff-centered music, with attention to not actually reveal everything in the first track though, so the fact that it is shorter than usual is actually intentional and the score part here is only represented by the piano and the synths. The piano intro has existed for a longer time but we couldn’t find a proper place for it earlier, and we’d been thinking that the key to this song could be the harsh tempo and various mood-swings as surprise elements.
Slickster – Have all of the musicians of Ghost Toast attended music school, or did you teach yourself?
Ghost Toast – László (dob), János Stefán (bass, fx, etc.) and Bence (guitar) were mostly self-taught, but János Pusker did actually get degrees in various schools of music, he’s an accomplished professional musician as such.
Slickster – We don’t often speak with musicians from Hungary. What’s the music scene like there at the moment? Do fans support live music much?
Ghost Toast – There’s a huge number of bands in Hungary, many of which represent a pro level of musicianship. You can find quite an amount of excellent records in all genres. However, these bands are very scarce to find among the regular live performers within the country itself. The attendance of the underground concerts/shows varies, there are some popular places where the numbers are better, but mostly it’s only a couple of people who go to these events regularly.
In Budapest, for example, the reason is mainly that the number of bands exceeds the “size” of the country, and in the countryside there are very few people who actually want to get to know new bands. Those that have some kind of presence have no problems though, nor do the known foreign ones, in spite of the higher ticket prices, so the number of such events are pretty high as well.
Slickster – Track, “Y13”, has a cello droning in the background. Can you discuss why you used the cello here?
Ghost Toast – We use the cello quite a lot, it’s one of our core instruments – there are examples in Hunt of Life or W.A.N.T, as it is the main instrument of our Janos Pusker. Y13 is a song which resembles most the ideas of movie scores, and the cello goes very well with these, it is ideal for enhancing main themes and motives and it also usually determines the background of these tracks which we are just delighted to be able to have.
Slickster – Can you briefly share how Ghost Toast was formed, how long you have been together, and who writes most of the music.
Ghost Toast – We officially formed in 2008 and this record was created by the original line-up. Almost everything has changed since the old days, when all songs were conceived and written in the rehearsal room by just being there and jamming a ton. By now, the base themes are written by Janos Stefan and Bence and with Janos Pusker and Laszlo contributing with their ideas we all shape the songs together into their final form, should that be about song structure, melodies or themes.
Slickster – What are the lyrics, sung by the female vocalist, on Hunt For Life saying. Can you provide an English interpretation for us?
Ghost Toast –
As the song itself says in the beginning, it’s about a raven (“or a crow!”), looking for food. It’s in Icelandic, not Hungarian – we have not yet used any Hungarian samples so far, though. But that might change in the near future, who knows ☺.
“The raven slept in a rock-rift
On a cold winters night There are many things that can hurt him.
Many things that can hurt him
Before a beautiful day came
He pulls his frozen nose
From underneath a big rock
Underneath a big rock
Everything is frozen outside
You can’t get anything at the beach
I’m so hungry I’m so hungry
If I go to a house Fatathome (a nickname for The dog)
forbids me To pluck from the garbage
To pluck from the garbage
The earth is covered in ice
There is no where to “set the table” (to sit and eat)
Full-fledged birds can fly far.
Full-fledged birds can fly far.
But even though
I look everywhere
There’s just one color
What can a raven eat?
What can a raven eat?
Dead, lying on its side is
A fat mutton near a fence,
Who once was fast. Once was fast.
‘Caw, caw! Namesakes (Ravens), come here!
Caw, caw! cos’ ready for us is, a feast on cold ice. a feast on cold ice.’”
Slickster – Has Ghost Toast ever composed for videos or video games? Is that something that the band would be interested in?
Ghost Toast – We actually did some tunes for a phone app/game which was developed by a friend, and did a soundtrack for a childen’s stage play, and we are looking at composing some stuff for an animated short movie in the near future. This is really something that we are interested in, we like this kinda’ stuff, whoever is interested should feel free to give us a hint!
Slickster – Thanks for talking to Slickster Magazine and sharing your music with us. Is there anything else you’d like to say or promote before we end the interview?
Ghost Toast – To all of you people who like the record Shape Without Form we would like to bring to your attention our earlier work (like our previous record Out Of This World) and we like to think it’s worth to follow us on social media as we continue to work and release stuff every now and then, and we just MAY release some brand new material earlier than one would expect! Thanks so much for having us, peace be with you all!
Ghost Toast is:
László Papp – drums
János Stefán – bass, fx
Bence Rózsavölgyi – guitar
János Pusker – cello, keyboard
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