Review Summary: Your Speakers in Ashes
What do you get when every member of the band wagers to be the loudest on the record and wins? Haloscript – Ghosts and Good Intentions
While I sincerely doubt such a wager actually took place, I can honestly say that the results could have fooled me. This band is thunderous in its delivery, so much so that on occasion I was convinced the instrumental track was in competition with the vocals. Listen to the leviathan that is “In the name of your dead” and you’ll understand what I mean. While this may be an issue for some, others like me will quickly fall prey to the notion that power is attractive.
As you can imagine, this is one energy filled album. Lucky for us, volume isn’t the only thing the members of this band excel at. Dust Johnson, the lead vocalist of the bunch, is phenomenal as far as alternative metal goes, giving you everything you’d expect but at a much higher decibel level. Things get even better on tracks that Charlotte Kelli, keys, makes an appearance. Her singing provides an excellent vocal contrast to the lead and her growls are just as furious. Their exchanges, heard mostly in the wonderful “Scarlet Canvas” song, are what truly shine however as they give a sense of novelty to their otherwise unoriginal sound. If that’s not enough, Haloscript also features Lajon Witherspoon and Morgan Rose of Sevendust, performing on “Atlanta in Ashes”. In case you’re wondering, yes, that makes for one hell of a track!
Besides the strong vocals, the instruments you’ll most likely fall in love with instantly are the drums. Partly because they are fantastic, in other words well pronounced, effectively complement the song and heavy hitting, and partly because they’ll be the only thing you’ll hear on many of the tracks as they drown out pretty much everything else. Lance Adair tries to keep things from getting repetitive but the constant pounding will still sometimes make you believe they’re advertising for Advil. The rest of the instruments also do a fantastic job and more often than not, their combined efforts pay off as can be seen on “Cast Aside”, another strong track and one that introduced me to Haloscript. I also found the lyrics to be interesting, not so much in their content but their delivery. The emotion seeps through as the vocalists go at it and even though they often seem to be shouting at you, the choruses especially remain catchy and melodic.
On the whole, this is a great album displaying true talent at work. It has many standout tracks, including the ones mentioned above and only really suffers when you realize a lot of it sounds alike. To counteract that however, the band stuck to a modest ten tracks, including an intro and an outro, while the longest track clocks at just over four minutes. It’s a short trip but one definitely worth taking for alt. metal and hard rock fans alike.
