Entry 374 - Ghost Brigade - Until Fear No Longer Defines Us

 

Ghost Brigade to this point had released two decent albums that showed a lot of untapped potential. There would be a few songs that would slay, and then there would be an equal amount of songs that would not be nearly as good. Until Fear No Longer Defines Us finally tipped that balance towards the good songs winning out.

The improvement in quality is perceptable right away, with In The Woods being a completely acoustic introduction to the album. One of the things that Ghost Brigade excels at is dynamic song writing, harsh vocals balanced by cleans, distortion balanced by acoustics, brutality balanced by melody. This is the nature of the band, and they fully embrace it on their third release.

Immediately after the acoustic intro the band bursts into Clawmaster which is a slow, doom laden melodeath song. While it's not the best song on the album, it sets the stage for what to expect throughout. Powerful riffs, excellent vocals, ridiculous guitar harmonies, and a slow brooding pace.

The album continues much in the same way for the remainder of the play time. Different songs offer different takes on that formula - that's not to say that the album is monotonous, the band knows what works on this album and sticks to it. To very good results I might add.

By the time the album closes out with Soulcarvers the album has really left a mark on me. I can't think of a truly bad song on the album. Sure Grain has a bit an annoying riff during the verses, but it quickly makes up for it with the rest of the song. That's really the only sticking point I have with the entire album... and if one riff out of god knows how many on here is a bit annoying then that's one hell of an album.

Sadly the band is no longer with us. At least they left us with one of the better melodeath albums in recent years before they split.