Album Review: Ghost Thrower - 'Ghost Thrower'

Ghost Thrower. Bit of a strange name. Part ambivalent, part misleading? Cutting through the early impressions these rock (dare we say, emo) upstarts, provide 11 honest tracks on this self-titled offering.

Songs like ‘Still Life With Paranoia’ and ‘The King of Louisiana’ have that laid back, almost emotionless tone in the vocals with eerie guitar riffs in the background.

In contrast, moments such as ‘Lemons’ and ‘Apple’ have a lot more groove and movement to them. They sound like Saves the Day with that ambient Thursday appeal. You know what, it works.

For all the prevailing intent though, the music does border on average at equal times. No song on here really seems to grab you; they are all a bit bland and don’t really stick out and make you remember them. Upon a first listen there are a few songs that sound great but on round two they lose their initial appeal. It’s quite a shame because there is quite a lot of potential in Ghost Thrower to really do something solid. A song with a great hook and melody line with a solid rhythm section and slick guitar parts – that is what’s missing.

Part of that bland and stale feeling comes from the overly lethargic vocals. It’s as if the vocalists (there’s two) don’t want to be in the booth at all. Yes, this is an “emo” album but that’s no excuse to have a boring and lacklustre voice.

Look assertions aside, there is enough promise and potential here. There just needs to be a bit more development first.

Ghost Thrower are still a young band and still have much to improve on yet they really need to address their sound a lot more. The playing from both vocals and instruments needs to be a lot cleaner and firmer, and far more energetic. In order to hold your attention and make you want to click back on your iPod, Ghost Thrower have to get their game together and sound like they actually want to record an album.

 1. Halloween in Brooklyn
2. Lemons
3. Still Life with Paranoia
4. Apple
5. Worry Addled Brain
6. Illuminatus!
7. Dopamine (and Other Divisions of the Human Condition)
8. The King of Louisiana
9. Young Luck
10. When Are You Coming Home?
11. The Unexamined Life