Within the first minute of the opener "Ghost," it isn't clear what to expect from Seventh Seal. Is this going to be hardcore ala mid-2000's Darkest Hour? Is this going to be death metal? Maybe Gojira influenced groove metal? Or… hey wait a minute, those are lead guitars that should be in something a little more radio friendly! Guitarist and vocalist Josh Clark doesn't help matters, switching rapidly between a scream that feels more like spoken word than savagery and half-sung, nauseous growls. All the menacing, churning riffing and vocal work dissolved quickly into orchestrated tides of precise guitar melodies and heavily layered vocals. Keep in mind this is only three minutes of the first track of The Ghosts of What We Are. if that doesn't sound the least bit appealing to you, then consider yourself unappeasable.
As a quick sampling of the album just to speak to the diversity of the music, let's just take a look at the first three tracks. "Ghost" has been well documented and is followed up by "On This Day," which kickstarts with a plodding, non-stop groove that never ventures far outside hitting hard as hell on every downbeat and including as many vocal harmonies as humanly possible over a bed of minimal instrumentation. Then there's "Awaken," which takes more of an Intervals-type approach and includes technical, intricate instrumentation with the opposite of "On This Day" in terms of vocals. It's a give-and-take writing approach that works well for Seventh Seal- where one aspect of the music is stepping out into the spotlight in a big way, the rest of everything else doesn't crowd it up. Focus is the name of the game on The Ghosts of What We Are and the band are professionals at it.
In the end, it's easy to draw comparisons between bands if you try hard enough or need something for your readers to latch on to. With Seventh Seal, it's not so much that it's easy to draw comparisons as it is trying to choose which ones to include. I could sit here for a solid hour and tell you what I'm hearing on each track and how it reminds me of another artist, but this review would exceed 2,000 words halfway through the album. The members of Seventh Seal didn't sit down to write a metal album, or an album that grooves with the ferocity of a thousand suns, or an album that shreds or any other descriptor for a sub-genre you can think of. Instead, Seventh Seal wrote an album that draws on an endless pool of creativity and it shows. I challenge you to go out right now and find me a record that is comparable, both in terms of sound and quality, to The Ghosts of What We Are.
I'll come back in a few months to check the comments section because I'd rather not starve to death at my laptop waiting. The Ghosts of What We Are is a top quality record that shows incredible promise for a band, especially considering it's their debut.
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