Metalcore seems to be a dying genre lately with several bands releasing mediocre album that fans of this particular genre have heard many times before. For the most part, the United Kingdom’s Of Ghosts continues this trend of mediocrity on their Monster EP, but they do show promise.
The production is very raw, which is both a good and bad thing. On the plus side, it brings back a bit of a nostalgic feeling and reminds me of I Killed The Prom Queen’s Music For The Recently Deceased. However, the drumming sounds very poorly mixed and nearly every cymbal hit is a little overbearing. This can be heard particularly well just a few seconds into the EP on “To The Depths”.
Another band and release that Of Ghosts reminded me of is Parkway Drive and their first EP, Don’t Close Your Eyes. The vocals have a similar rough and powerful vibe to them, and at times, the style of riffing and drumming is very similar. The instrumentation is very standard and it has been done several times before by many bands, but Of Ghosts’ Monster EP is by no means a poor release. A few tracks really stand out more than the others because either the riffing is very fast-paced, the vocals are immaculate, the drumming is hard-hitting, or all of the above. The 2-minute onslaught of aggression brought forth by “Hunting Season” is probably the fastest and heaviest track on the EP, and my personal favourite.
The other two tracks that seemed to catch my attention the most were “I Am Adam” and “Green Mirror”. “I Am Adam” fades in with a quiet intro which leads into the vocalist screaming out “I am a being without a soul/Bound in borrowed flesh” to kick-start the actual song. For the first two minutes, “I Am Adam” is solid, but it slowly picks up some steam and eventually culminates into a melodic outro that helps the track finish on a strong note. “Green Mirror” is fairly strong from start to finish. It features an unusual techno/rap beat with screams layered over it near the middle of the track which gives the listener something different to listen to while still not deviating too far from the band’s original path.
As I stated earlier, though, this sound has been done before so Monster does run the risk of sounding samey or bland. Does it ever sound bland? Yes, of course it does, but there isn’t one track that is boring. The majority of the tracks on the EP are solid and they do have weak moments, however, these moments aren’t weak enough to drag the entire song down.
For a metalcore band that formed just over a year ago, the Monster EP is just a notch above average. The replay value is fairly low, but again, that doesn’t mean it’s a poor release. Of Ghosts shows flashes of brilliance every once in a while, but if they want to leave a lasting impression on their listeners, they’re going to need to display a steady stream of brilliance. Check out Monster when the band releases it on Halloween (October 31st) as a free download!
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