| CD REVIEW I Am Ghost |
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Band : I Am Ghost This Post-Hardcore band from Long Beach, California was conceived and founded by former animation artist (and now singer) Steven Juliano with the intent of mixing lyrics of a darker kind (fantasy and reality blended together in twisted tales of tragedy and death) with elements from Screamo Hardcore, Metal, Gothic, and Rock. In fact, Juliano himself much prefers the "categorisation" of Dark Rock. Only a couple of months after formation the band recorded the 6-track We re Always Searching demo for the purpose of booking local shows and, giving them away free of charge. Before signing onto Epitaph in 2005, thousands of copies of the demo had been distributed, asuring the band of a huge following throughout Southern California. Recording 3 new songs, and adding new artwork, the demo was released as an EP in late October that same year, making the band's first weapon fact on the label effective. The release garnered the band media attention in alternative magazines, an interview in Metal Hammer (as well as being included in the 'zine's "Dead Hot 50 Bands Of 2006" list), and interviews for several webzines. The band's debut full-length Lovers' Requiem came almost a year later (only two weeks' difference, and at that time the band was a 6-piece consisting of Juliano, guitarists Timoteo Rosales III & Gabriel Iraheta, violin player/ backing singer Kerith Marcantonio, bassist/ pianist/ backing singer Brian Thomas, and drummer Ryan Seaman.), presented as "...essentially a Rock Opera, but for Hardcore or Goth Kids" (also sprach Juliano). Apparently the frontman wasn't too pleased with the direction he'd allowed "his" project to develop towards musically through the intervention peer pressure from the fans and of some of his band members, because in 2007 he sacked everyone except for guitarist Timoteo, finding new people with bassist Ron Ficarro and drummer Justin McCarthy (later the band would be joined by guitarist Chad – no idea what his family name is, though!). In the past two years the band toured with the likes of Aiden, Escape The Fate and Eyes Set To Kill (among others), thus spreading their diseased music all over the North American continent with sets of intensively passionate performances. The new album is apparently a return to the band's original musical orientation, Juliano explaining, "We took everything differently this time. We didn't set out to impress anyone this time. We've learned so much from touring for two years straight. We saw the world and realized how important it was to connect with yourself. You need to play music you love. We didn't care what anyone thought of this new record. We loved it and we thought, if we love it then I'm sure everyone else might dig it. The entire band just let loose. We didn't hold back and this time there weren't people telling me what I could and could not say in my lyrics. I dwelled more into my dreams and nightmares and wrote songs that meant a lot to me and the band." Well, if one thing comes through clear enough when listening to the album, it's that the band was envigorated when putting the music for this album together! Nice intertwining guitars with freaky lead and solo bits, an occasional keyboard (or cello), an additional female singer coming in twice (solo for the album intro "We Dance With Monsters", fortifying the others during "So, I Guess This Is Goodbye"), and a vocal soundscape to dream of, with Juliano's Goth-like voice being accompanied by a likewise harmony backing and regularly over-powered by a Screamo-type second singer (who also gets some lead parts, by the way). If the above makes one thing there's a certain complexity about I Am Ghost's music...that's true, but also everything is kept so fluidly melodic it grabs one by the throat right from the beginning! To say it in other words, there's a certain beauty in it all, even if Juliano's lyrical fantasies are geared towards the darker sides of life! To get a whiff of the band's new album, I could...coùld...direct you to myspace.com/iamghost, but there's only two songs posted there coming from the new album (plus 3 off the debut full-length). Nay, better you surf to purevolume.com/iamghost, because there you'll find the whole album (all 14 songs), plus no less than 6 songs off the previous album and 3 off the EP! At last.fm/music/I+Am+Ghost there's also a total of 24 videos to watch (though I suspect not all of 'em will be musical, I'm sure a great deal of them will be live recordings or even commercial video clips). A very nice album indeed, and although I'm not giving it a perfect rating just yet, the album may well grow on me (given half a chance of me being able to listen to it a couple more times – which isn't that evident with the work load I'm getting these days) to make my year-lists! I'm sure the average music fan, who depends on getting in contact with new music from the money (s)he spends, will spend a lot more time with the one album, and in this case that will almost invariably mean Those We Left Behind WILL be featured into that person's list of prefered 2008 albums! 92/100 Tony. |