The Ghost Of A Thousand are English hardcore kids hailing from Brighton, and after signing to a bigger label, Epitaph Records, they are bringing us their second studio album. Recorded in Stockholm Sweden with producer Pelle Gunnerfeldt (Refused, The Hives), people have told me that this album is a lot heavier than their older stuff, but I’m still not fully convinced of that.
I heard about these guys from a Brighton native who was visiting Australia in 2005 and since then I have kept an eye on their progress. They have built themselves quite the reputation as a relentlessly hard touring band, playing alongside bands such as Saosin, Poison The Well and Alexisonfire. If you haven’t heard their music before I highly recommend having a listen to some of their older tracks such as ‘Black Art Number One’, ‘Bored Of Math’ & ‘New Toy’.
The hardcore scene in England is of course up and running. Hardcore bands are getting major festival recognition with Ghost Of A Thousand playing such monster festivals as Leeds & Reading. In addition to this band I recommend having a listen to Go Go Bat Fiasco or The Comanche Cipher’s: Ludovico Technique EP, who just very recently played their last show (8th Aug). People keep banging on and making comparisons to Gallows but I’m not even going to go there, the English in general have a knack for producing great music full stop.
The album is full of up tempo beats, the juxtaposition of vocals which vary from melodic to throaty screams and punchy guitar riffs. This is what I like from my hardcore; dark, slightly twisted but with a controlled chaos that not many bands seem to pull off. Ghost Of A Thousand are frantic but always seem to know when to pull back to give their music some light and shade. Most songs on this CD aren’t past the three minute mark, which is one thing I really like, commanding and straight to the point.
Some highlights of the CD for me were the awesome riff on the track ‘Bright Lights’ and the drumming and the almost desperate screams on ‘Neptune’. The track ‘Small Mercies’ is an instrumental with a more solemn, moodier feel and is a good punctuation in an album full of rapid intros. This is swiftly followed by a more euphonic ‘Nobody Likes A Hero’ which has a more commercial appeal to it, until of course the throat-rending screams cause heart palpitations.
A great, aggressive hardcore album with no massive flaws. The perfect soundtrack to my road trips/rage.
7/10
