The Ghost of a Thousand - New Hopes, New Demonstrations

At a certain point, hardcore kids got sick of just mashing trap kits and chugga-chugga riffs. It seems Brighton-hailing The Ghost of a Thousand were some of those same kids, interested in hardcore for the energy and to build on its framework to create a fierce rock record. Similar in spirit to Doomriders or Clouds, but with less doom and cleaner production, these lads do best when harnessing punk and rock influences in equal measure: It’s Knees, Toes, Teeth when Tom Lacey rips “It’s only rock ‘n’ roll/This is our religion!” in a death-metal scream. The band’s experimentalism missteps later on, though, with closer Good Old Fashioned Loss cutting too close to emo territory and interlude Small Mercies blowing a chance for sustained exhibition of ambient oddity. But, in an ideal world, Hopes would have the kids with Xs on their hands and the greased-hair-and-tattoo crowd joining together in the pit.