Album Review: The Ghost Inside - 'Get What You Give'

This record may well be the benchmark for which all other metalcore music that is released this year will need to match. The reason why is because of the emotion and intensity presented in this music. The Ghost Inside's third record, 'Get What You Give' is inspired by tragedy, in the form of vocalist Jonathan Vigil's brother passing away, which encouraged the front man to focus on the more important things in life, and to say that the record's lyrics reflect the weight of this realisation is a huge understatement.

There is another influence on the music which cannot go unmentioned, and that is producer Jeremy McKinnon of A Day To Remember fame, whose imprint on the sound is extremely obvious. The sound itself, especially the drums, is very ADTR but the influence is most notable in the clean sections and with the use of melody, two elements which The Ghost Inside have never explored before in this much detail.

From the word go the record explodes with power and emotion, opening track This Is What I Know About Sacrifice sets the lyrical theme for the album with some heavy statements while the blistering guitars let you know this will not be an affair for the weak. If you need proof that the band are stepping their game up, it comes two songs later with the album highlight Engine 45, a track that exemplifies the group’s mature sense of song writing and approach to the metalcore genre. Beginning with some fairly standard chugging and blistering vocals, the shock of the song comes in the soft and melodic mid section which puts across a sense of honesty and even desperation. The ADTR influence appears once again in the vocal harmonies which lift the end of the song in a soaring hook.
 
While it seems like there are plenty of vocal sections that try to bring a sense of beauty into the music, the guitar riffs are constantly doing the opposite, especially in The Great Unknown, which features truly evil lines that cut like razors. The album rounds out with the blistering Thirty Three which features a guest vocal appearance from Comeback Kid's Andrew Neufield and Test The Limits, the only song in which the guitars brighten up and take a more alternative rock route letting the vocals and drums do the heavy lifting.

It is obvious that The Ghost Inside are putting everything on line and giving their all on this record and as a result, they lay claim to one of the finest metalcore releases this so far this year.