If today feels especially haunted out there in indie-rock land, it’s not just you. David Berman died one year ago today, and tributes are pouring across social media. Microphones In 2020, an album on which Phil Elverum reckons with his continued existence against a backdrop of mourning, is out now. And then there’s Eight Gates, the first posthumous album from Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co. mastermind Jason Molina, a man who was riding with the ghosts even when he was still alive.

Before his death from complications related to alcoholism in 2013, Molina built up a vast catalog of dark, despairing folk-rock. In a quivering Midwestern drawl, he articulated intense imagery and deeply felt laments, cohering into a genuinely spooky portrait of one man’s struggle to be OK. As portrayed through Molina’s music, this world was a bleak wasteland meant to be endured more than enjoyed. Although more accessible turns like 2003’s career peak Magnolia Electric Co. channeled that energy into ornate country ballads and raucous Crazy Horse-style roots rock, Molina often retreated into sparse arrangements that mirrored his own bleak sense of isolation and hopelessness. Digging down into those records was often rewarding, but extended exposure to them could be harrowing.

Eight Gates mostly exists within those shadows. It wouldn’t be an easy listen even if Molina was still alive. Recorded in 2008 while he was living in London and supposedly recovering from a mysterious spider bite, these songs find him at the peak of his powers and seemingly at the bottom of an emotional valley. Even lead single “Shadow Answers The Wall,” with its minimal rock band setup, is a ghostly slow-creeping ballad. Because Molina is gone, non-musical snippets like the birdsong that recurs throughout the album take on heightened significance. And, fair warning, when he introduces “She Says” by asserting, “The perfect take is just as long as the person singing is still alive,” longtime fans may dissolve into a puddle of tears.

If you’re up for it, stream Eight Gates below.

Eight Gates is out now on Secretly Canadian. Buy it here.