In their own words, I Am Ghost 'sat down and figured out the entire plot to Lover's Requiem on a storyboard, before even a single song was written'. Now this is not a new idea. Concept albums have been around since 'Dark Side of the Moon' came out, and in the last decade or so they've become so popular that bands are basing their entire careers on them (see Coheed & Cambria, Blind Guardian). The idea is basic; take a complex story arc, name each song a 'chapter' and seamlessly blend a few tracks into one another to add a dimension of pretension. However, I Am Ghost seem to fall well short of the mark with this, their debut release, as it ends up sounding confused and ultimately shamelessly self-indulgent.
Don't get me wrong, there's definite musicianship present on 'Lover's Requiem'. The perfectly formulated harmonies and black metal guitar riffs show that these boys from Long Beach aren't devoid of talent by any means. There are even some very well structured songs on here, in the form of 'Pretty People never die' and 'We are always searching' which interestingly mix elements of AFI and Dragonforce with an added dash of post-hardcore screaming. Unfortunately, the lower parts of this album far outbalance the highs, and there just seems to be a list of things wrong with 'Lover's Requiem'.
Although likely a fuck-up on the label's behalf and not the band's, the track listing on the back of the CD case is no help whatsoever in navigating your way through the album. While the sleeve suggests there are 12 songs here, when you pop the disc into your CD player, you'll realise that there are in fact 99, all approximately twenty or thirty seconds in length. I have a hunch this may be some badly-thought out copy-prevention idea, but it's putting I Am Ghost at fault rather than benefiting them. You just don't know where one song starts and another ends, and as a result, listening to individual favourite tracks is nigh on impossible.
The music itself is just so damn cheesy in parts it makes you cringe. Lyrically, it sounds as if a collection of 14-year old goth poetry has been put to backing music, and the music ITSELF seems to follow every cliché in the book. Over-extravagant use of strings and organs, typical metal drum patterns and a choral intro AND outro, makes it sound all too over the top. On top of this, at times 'Lover's Requiem' sounds as if it just doesn't know what it wants to be. There are parts where it bounces between post-hardcore and gothic metal, sometimes two or three times in the same song that ultimately leave you wondering what I Am Ghost were aiming for.
I know for a fact there will be people out there who completely disagree with this review and will absolutely adore 'Lover's Requiem' and it's extravagance and sense of grandeur. With gothic fashion and music making a comeback, it's likely to have a fair amount of popularity, and because of this I won't write it off completely. However, for me it sounded far too muddled and confused to become a repeated listen.
Andy R
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