The Ghost InsideSearching for Solace

A band’s 20th anniversary should be cause for celebration – especially after the two rollercoaster decades El Segundo, CA’s The Ghost Inside have had.

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November 19th, 2015 is a day that will live on in heavy music scene infamy, waking up to the horror news of one of our beloved metalcore outfits had been seriously injured in a gruesome bus smash. With an outpouring of support from fans, we all hoped they’d pull through. Against all odds, they arose from the ashes to ride the killing road once again, as Dave Mustaine called it. Metalcore’s most resilient band has once again stepped into the studio, this time Searching for Solace.

Though billed as metalcore—and the bulk of the album is unashamedly so—Going Under is that perfect pop fusion Linkin Park pioneered just as TGI were playing in front of barflies only at the place for a beer and a shot; slick melodic vocals, fist pumper riffs, and arena-sized breakdowns paired with pop-offs of pyro. You know the type, I’m sure. Curiously, they crib Aussie “apocalypti-core” (Alpha Wolf, Void of Vision et. al.) in tearing-itself-apart screamer Death Grip, the gravel for breakfast and lunch upchucked and thirsty for blood, summed up by the line Don’t need a lifeline / I got a death grip! More metallic then ‘core, Light Years balances Architects slap ya mama riffs and I Prevail full-lunged melodic choruses, set ablaze by an urgent, inspired punk rock style middle-8.

Vigil builds up to an outpouring of melody and emotion like he’s storming barricades and waving flags.

Wash It Away hears vocalist Jonathan Vigil hold the mic close, murky waters snatching him away and into a dark Underoath forest, a place where his own thoughts threaten him as he floats carelessly by. A meditation on the impermanence of well, everything, it hits hard as a lead single and as chief earworm among, well not that many equals as it turns out.

After this point, Searching for Solace steam reserves begin to empty. They take extra turns at heavy-hitting ‘core bangers (Wrath, Split) radio-friendly arena ‘core with double helpings of of bottom end (Earn It, Breathless) and even a pensive semi-demi ballad Cityscapes, echoing guitars surrounding the listener like swirling points of iPhone torchlight as Vigil builds up to an outpouring of melody and emotion like he’s storming barricades and waving flags. If The Ghost Inside’s last album was all about letting loose the trauma of that fateful November day, this one seems to be chasing safety a little more than usual. Even so, TGI’s lesser tracks strip the paint off most of their competitors’ feature singles. It makes Searching for Solace a compelling sixth outing for a band carrying a weight that will never, ever, go away.

STANDOUT TRACKS: Death Grip, Going Under, Wash It Away
STICK THIS NEXT TO: I Prevail, Stick To Your Guns, Architects