I’ll apologise now because I’m not a massive fan of hardcore (although when it’s done with a bit of melody it’s a different prospect entirely) and I don’t know all that much about Give Up The Ghost either, suffice to say I know all about their name changes and subsequent lawsuit threats. Call this a musical education; I’ve read so much about this band that when this record came through the mail I kept it for myself so I could learn just what the fuss was all about. Now I know…
Quite simply, this band live up to every expectation I could have had. I don’t think I’ve seen anything bad written about them and now I know why. There’s a fire, a burning intense passion in each song that makes you sit up and take notice. From the opening instrumental of ‘It’s Sometimes Like It Never Started’ to the closing atmospherics of ‘And It’s Sometimes Like It Will Never End’, this is a brutal record. Not brutal in the sense it will make your ears bleed, more brutal in the way it is executed. You can almost smell the sweat from here.
‘Love American’ starts things off with barrels of screaming and a chaotic riff, surrounded by drums which sound on the point of collapse, while ‘Young Hearts Be Free Tonight’ carries a wall of feedback and stops and builds, creating a cathartic effect which eventually builds again. There’s melody and a sense of creativeness that I didn’t expect, and boy does Wes have a powerful voice. ‘Since Always’ seems more considered, showing that while the band do power as well as anyone, they can allow things to build up and use that power to better effect. And so it goes on, I won’t go on through every song because I think that will spoil the listening. You just need to plug in and play and listen to the emotion and passion that spills out. The musicianship throughout is outstanding, the production slick and powerful yet not overly so, and the vocals are brilliant. The awesome ‘Crime Scene’ is probably the pinnacle of it all, mashing everything together to brilliant effect. The booklet is rather nice too, great pictures and a brilliant layout, all in a rather snazzy blood red colour.
I read some reviews that suggested this record isn’t as hard or intense as some of their older material, but for me it was a great starting point. If there’s even more energy and power in their back catalogue, I think I’d be knackered just from listening. The opinion I’d formed of Give Up The Ghost was justified because this record is great and even if you’re not a hardcore fan you still have to listen and admire the work-rate this band put out. If they can translate the energy and passion from this into a live setting…wow…
www.giveuptheghost.com
Equal Vision/Burning Heart Records
Paul