Album Review: Get What You Give by The Ghost Inside

Why is metalcore so terrible, exactly? I’ve isolated a great deal of metal fans with that opening sentence, but the current state of affairs in the genre is such that a pause for evaluation is necessary. Paradigm shifts within certain sub-genres of metal—black metal being the most obvious example—have brought about so many frenzied discussions that in our highfalutin theorizing (see: Liturgy) fans of popular subgenres like metalcore have begun to feel oddly threatened by the melding and molding that, to many, has made metal better. A microcosm of this conflict can be seen in a humorous way via the MSN Metal website, where PopMatters contributing editor Adrien Begrand writes.

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In "This Is What I Know About Sacrifice," the opening track of the Ghost Inside's third album, Get What You Give, frontman Jonathan Vigil bellows, "I'll see you at the crossroads!" Don't think this is some sort of ironic wink torward Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, though—Vigil & Co. take their music incredibly seriously. (So much so, in fact, that they've unintentionally helped create a subgenre of hardcore jokingly referred to as "srscore.") Every song is slammed with downtuned riffing, chest-thumping double-bass drumming (courtesy of new drummer Andrew Tkaczyk, who is a goddamn beast) and plenty of opportunities for both circle pits ("Test The Limits") and hilariously pointless kung-fu dancing ("Outlive").

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Taking their current moniker in 2007, the Ghost Inside didn't make a huge splash in the metalcore scene until the 2010 release of Returners. With the jump from Mediaskare to Epitaph, and from producer Shane Frisby to Jeremy McKinnon (of A Day to Remember fame), the band could expect another leap forward in popularity with Get What You Give. The music on the album in question follows the group's trajectory into more commercial territory.

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Get What You Give, the third studio outing from L.A.-based metalcore outfit the Ghost Inside, is spearheaded by the brutal anthemic single "Outlive," which blends the raw, thunderous despair of "Institutionalized"-era Suicidal Tendencies with the relentless sonic crush of contemporaries like Bring Me the Horizon and the Devil Wears Prada. Produced by A Day to Remember's Jeremy McKinnon and steeped in the old-school hardcore traditions of deep watertight riffs, simple introspective lyrics, and brutal breakdowns, Get What You Give hits hard and fast, with highlights coming from the epic (by hardcore standards) "White Light" and the surprisingly melodic "Engine 45" and "Dark Horse." .

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