I Am Ghost – Those We Leave Behind

6th Oct 2008

A chilling, Halloween fitting and eerily ambient commencement that matches the haunting touch of Conor O’berst in the title track from his Casadaga album, introduces Los Angeles’ I Am Ghost’ through ‘We Dance With Monsters’.

Before ‘Don’t Wake Up’, sets off with a shuddering guitar catapulted instrumental assault and frantic lead vocals. Followed by screeching backing vocals that would wake the dead, giving spice and gnarl to this ebb and frothing flash from a foraging metal/post hardcore, Timoteo RosalesIII led quartet.

An intense, but focused Chiodos and Thursday conjoining touch makes ‘Bone Garden’, biting, eerie and emotive, as this tension releasing quartet speaks of vengeance and redemption, but what is most important is that you can tell that they mean what they communicate. Songs like this are given extra impetus for the fact that they are slotted alongside slow building, reflective and regretful sojourns like ‘Saddest Story Never Told’, whereby the high pulsing percussion beats of Justin McCarthy impart feeling, mood and rhythm.

Melody is not a complete stranger to this eerie, mood tossing bunch of alt.rocking, metal skirting renegades. A case in point is ‘So, I Guess This Is Goodbye’, building from a Mediterranean acoustic trickle into a big riffing, ball-swinging harmony parade. Timotoe’s vocals soften a little to take on a yearning slant, but in their favour it only just gets the Sap-ometer moving.

Retro rocking and the appearance of a trundling emo kick through ‘’They Always Come Back’, represents DA Ghost at their most universal. With McCarthy’s high profile percussion rhythm ride, lifting the track up a notch in the profile stakes. Although, this striking element overshadows the vocals rendering the song’s meaning to be lost for a little while. Then again, isn’t that what alternative music is about sometimes? I Am Ghost perch themselves in just the right place between the mainstream and being scarily eccentric.