Review Summary: It's not perfect, but it's solid metalcore from an upcoming young band
Metalcore is one of my favorite genres of music. A majority of my favorite bands play this style, and so every time I am told of a new band popping up, it excites me, even if the majority does not love the band. One of the newest bands to catch my ear is Deception of a Ghost. Set to release their second full-length album, Speak Up, You’re Not Alone on August 24th.
From the first song on the album, In Case You Forgot, it is evident that Deception wants to hit you hard. Combining heavy guitars, harsh vocals, and the occasional clean melodic vocals, the band puts together a nice blend of melodic metalcore. The harsh vocalist is the highlight of the album. Putting out a good mid-range scream and a solid low growl, he provides a nice amount of variety in songs like These Voices and I Once Knew A Man. The singing is decent on Speak Up, it is not the best clean vocals I have heard, but it does a good job of not falling into that high-pitched emo side of clean vocals. Musically Deception of a Ghost is solid. The guitars make effective use of riffs as well as some clean guitar to offset the heavy amount of chugging found in this album. They do a good job of utilizing the chugging effectively and it does not get as overbearing as it could. The drumming is solid, but nothing spectacular. It just helps the guitars and vocals lead the charge.
Even with all the good Speak Up, You’re Not Alone has going for it, there are still a few problems that muddle the listening experience. The production is not as sharp as I would have liked. It sounds kind of muddled at parts, and sometimes the guitars start sounding like a bunch of noise. The vocal production is weak at parts, and the drums could be a little higher in the mix. The other problem is the chugging. Many listeners will be turned away by the relatively high amount of chugging guitars found on this album.
Even with those problems, Deception of A Ghost is a promising young band that is poised to release a solid metalcore album. This is a worthy pick-up for fans of melodic metalcore, and this band could rise quickly with some slight refinment and better production.
