The Ghost Of A Thousand : Bright Lights
A glance at the photo of TGOAT and you would think that they were all too nice to be lumped under the hardcore/punk label. Looks are as usual the first stage of deception, and their music could not be further from their appearance. They do have the tattoos, the messy, long hair and the attitudinising but they look as though they were all once at a public school and simply handed round some rebellious music cds to each other.
They are more hardcore than punk, and in fact more thrash/speed metal than hardcore, but you can hear traces of Backyard Babies and the punk guitar is definitely discernable. However, the heavy opening riff sounds very Raging Speedhorn – a British metal band that few will ever have encountered – and continues in a speed metal vein. The blastbeats of drummer Memby Jago (a truly hardcore name) and death growl of singer Tom Lacey, hallmarks of metal, really make this a textbook song for the band’s proposed genre. This is one of their heavier songs as opposed to the punkier ones on their myspace page, but this is more innovative than their other pieces.
The music is fantastically heavy and allows a former metalhead a chance to reminisce. The lyrics are unashamedly brutal with pearlers such as “All you do is fucking complain/‘bout being thrown to the wolves/ Keep in mind the vermin you fear have all been wearing kid gloves/Fuck dreaming” become recognisable through the throaty roaring, when listened to enough. To complete my nostalgia trip, the cymbal choke rounds off a healthy bout of headbanging induced by the final, vicious guitar pounding.
3/5
Words: John Elmes
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