You may be more than familiar with 'Give up the Ghost' than you realise. They hit the headlines on 99% of punk zines last year when a Philadelphia Metal band objected to the collective using their former name, 'American Nightmare'. The band lost the ensuing legal wrangle and to a certain extent had to start from scratch with the need for a new moniker. They decided on 'Give up the Ghost' and that kids, concludes today’s history lesson...
So what of the band? Well what you see and hear is what you get. GUTG are straight up, no frills hardcore. It is not earth shattering, but neither disappointing, finding middle ground where it can stand on its own two feet and mock those below. All three tracks feature outlandish lyrics, enigmatic song structure and dare I say it, certain accessibility to their music, which can easily add new fans to the GUTG ranks.
All songs are instantly appeal able, none more so than opener 'Love American'. It storms out the blocks at an inanely energetic rate with drum fills and screams pulsating through your stereo managing to encapsulate all about GUTG which is good and proper. The first half of 'The hell we've been living in' is strikingly similar to it's predecessor but luckily the second half picks up with some cracking breakdowns complementing the crunching guitars and vocals. 'You and me' is the polar opposite to our previous encounters, with a slow strumming bass line leading us into a train wreck of a song, trudging along at a cumbersome pace to showcase the bands talent at both ends of the scale.
Give up the Ghost have made a triumphant comeback following their well documented problems of the last year with a strong solid outing which will do the band no harm at all. It all bodes well for forthcoming full length "We’re Down Till We’re Underground" and having toured with the likes of Glassjaw, Poison the Well and Hatebreed, things can only get better... American who?
Jay
