I have always had a lot of time for I Am Ghost over the years, and they truly are a brilliant and immensely consistent band. They first wowed me on the Kerrang! Tour in 2006, when they were tipped as the “next big things” by that very magazine. Things however didn’t quite go to plan though after that, with them struggling to break into the scene to the same level of success that peers such as My Chemical Romance shared. They were excellent that night on the K! Tour and have been every time that I have seen them since. I saw them on Warped Tour in 2007 in what would be some of the last shows the band played with the band guitarist , (after his wife Kerith had previously left the fold, vacating her fiddling duties), and then a couple of times since then on their own tours over here.
The fiddle was such an integral part to their first album, Lovers Requiem which was an exciting record when it came out, with some killer tracks on it. It is still a great listen today, nearly five years on. However, the band dusted themselves off from the departures of and Kerith, and reshuffled their line-up to release one of the most incredible releases of 2008 in Those We Leave Behind. I picked it up hoping to be captivated as much by that, as I was by their first album. What I got was a just reward for believing in them from the very beginning. Those We Leave Behind was a stunning album from the start, to the very finish, and I can honestly say that it was “all killer, no filler”. Moving and progressing away from the violin infused goth punk that they perfected on Lover’s Reqiuem, it was just a mash up of everything I love about metalcore, goth and punk music with some driving riffs, killer solos, and just great ideas. The choruses were huge, and to me they were well and truly back, ready to make the rest of the world pick up on their genius.
However, the album went largely unnoticed in the scene, and they once more never broke away from the pack. Their headline run in 2010 saw a devoted bunch of hardcore fans take in their shows, and love every second of it. It was a better reaction than the muted one they received at their 2008 co-headline shows with Blessed By A Broken Hearted, where it seemed the majority of the crowd were not there for I Am Ghost. They seem to be getting better and better as well, but can’t seem to shake off the shackles of being an underground and cult concern.
They deserve a break, as they really were the “next big things” way back then, and by now, the world should have taken note. They have awesome songs across a sterling back catalogue, and people should really go and check them out. Killer Likes Candy, We Are Always Searching and Lover’s Requiem in particular from the first record, are essential cuts, and should not be ignored. Pretty much everything on the sophomore release is essential, but I would definitely recommend get into tracks such as So, I Guess This Is Goodbye, Don’t Wake Up, Bone Garden, Buried Way Too Shallow, Those We Leave Behind, Saddest Story Never Told, and pretty much everything else on there. It was such a great release, and a real shame that it never made a murmur on its introduction. I seem to recall that it took me some time to know it had even been released, due to the little coverage it got when it first dropped. I am however, so glad that I sourced it out, managing to pick it up in HMV, way back when they actually stocked CDs!
They are also a thrilling proposition live, really knowing how to work a crowd, and whip them into a preverbial frenzy. Lead singer Steve . . . is a manic and enthralling frontman, and the band are a real tight machine behind him. Sure they have had their difficulties in keep a consistent line-up, but this latest incarnation is a real talented bunch, and should be given a fair chance to take their music to the wider world. Magazines such as Kerrang! have long since given up on bands such as I Am Ghost, and the “here today, gone tomorrow” fad is something often associated with acts such as this in magazines such as Kerrang and Metal Hammer etc, which is a shame, as truly, they have great songs, and should be hitting an unstoppable peak by now. The press seem to have moved on from I Am Ghost, and are putting their money on new acts to be the “next big thing”. However, they really missed a trick by abandoning I Am Ghost.
An awesome band, and I would love to see a third album be released by them which could put the critics in their place, and realise what they have been missing out on for all this time.
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