Tragic Hero Records have a new gem in their ranks who just dropped a insane new record. If you haven’t heard of Northern Ghost and their new record ‘Happy : Sad : Depressed : Suicidal’ then you are doing something wrong! Northern Ghost was only started in October of last year according to their Facebook, but have inked the deal with Tragic Hero and dropped this full length in July of 2017 which is littered with influences from bands such as Underoath, Bring Me The Horizon, Architects, etc.
‘Happy : Sad : Depressed : Suicidal’ starts off with the Bring Me The Horizon ‘Sempiternal’ type vibe before lunging into a chaos of riffs and screaming. The music is dark, which is expected due to the album title, but at times gives way for light and breathing. ‘Heart Of Stone’, the third track, plays into this. While having the aggressive vocals, the main hook and a majority of the song is very atmospherical and ambient with wide range of singing showing off the vocal range. The sixth track ‘On My Own’ find the band with their most commercial song on the record. All that means if they went to radio with ANY of the songs this would be the one to make it due to its calmness and catchy hook. The chorus is made for active rock radio and could quickly become popular if it ever did make it. ‘Face To Face’ is one of the more interesting songs because as you can hear the influences of other bands on this album, however this one seems to directly implement the same vocal melody in the opening hook that ‘The Silver String’ by Saosin has. Personally, I would love to chat with the band and discuss this.
‘Happy : Sad : Depressed : Suicidal’ concludes with heavy hitters and punches that carry a ton of the album. The play between aggressive Underoath/Architects stylings with the emo/lighten Bring Me The Horizon stylings blend seamlessly well. This record is must have for anyone who is a fan of post-hardcore and wanting something refreshing while keeping elements of the genre you have grown to love.
Rating: 8.5/10
Songs To Stream: Heart Of Stone/On My Own/Purge
