The Ghost Inside - 'The Ghost Inside' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. 1333

2. Still Alive

3. The Outcast

4. Pressure Point

5. Overexposure

6. Make Or Break

7. Unseen

8. One Choice

9. Phoenix Rise

10. Begin Again

11. Aftermath

Los Angeles Metalcore five-piece The Ghost Inside are back with their fifth, self-titled album, their first release since their 2014 effort 'Dear Youth' and their return after 2015s tragic bus crash.

The album begins in extremely strong fashion with the 59 second track ‘1333’, which leads perfectly into ‘Still Alive’. Both tracks, and indeed the rest of the album, are incredibly heavy, maintaining a tonne of force and aggression throughout. The guitar tones from Zach Johnson and Chris Davis are gritty and menacing, with an equally menacing bassline from Jim Riley, complementing Jonathan Vigil’s deep, powerful screams. With frantic pacing, it makes you want to get up and move.

Perhaps the heaviest and most menacing track comes in the form of ‘Pressure Point’, with Vigil’s piercing screams of “Fuck this fake sympathy” echoing through the pre-chorus and a phenomenal breakdown held together perfectly by Andrew Tkaczyk’s precise, almost clinical drums, resulting in one of the best breakdowns I’ve heard in a while. This track shows that The Ghost Inside aren’t playing around and want to push themselves to the brink.

Even in the album’s slower moments, there is an undeniable energy. The track ‘Unseen’ proves this in spectacular fashion, beginning with a haunting guitar part before building into a more aggressive riff. It has a melodic feel whilst still being heavy, mainly due to Tkaczyk’s drumming. It’s a perfectly paced song, pausing at the right moments to deliver an emotional gut punch, especially with Vigil screaming the line “Am I lucky to be alive?”.

The track ‘One Choice’ follows ‘Unseen’ perfectly, providing the album’s only instance of clean vocals within the chorus, arguably giving the lyrics “I won’t bend, Through the darkest of days, I Remember, I won’t break I survive, I don’t surrender'' even more weight, whilst still maintaining the same fervent energy that is rife throughout the album. With echoing guitars leading into a massive riff, this track is sure to stay with you.

'The Ghost Inside' is a phenomenal comeback story for the band, becoming stronger in the wake of tragedy to produce a near flawless album that is enough to bring you to tears in places with inspirational lyrical themes of facing adversity head on and coming out the other side. It is phenomenally put together, with no weak links, resulting in one of the strongest albums in the genre to come out in recent years.