Released: April 27, 2015
Released By: Mascot Label Group
Genre: Thrash, Heavy Metal
Links: stoneghost.bandcamp.com
Lineup:
Jason Smith – Vocals
Andrew Mathews – Guitar
Jamie Nash – Bass
Cris Finniss – Drums
Tracklist
1 Faceless Ghost
2 Devil’s Motion
3 All They Need is Light
4 Second to Breathe
5 The Sound Remains
6 Raynardine
7 Sleeper
8 Your Trigger My Finger
9 Third Degree
10 Let Sleeping Beasts Lie
11 Mother of All Bastards (Demo)
The powerful, angry debut from London’s Stoneghost has received wide praise with good reason. With influences from classic hard rock, as well as some grove and thrash metal, this makes for a diverse, yet cohesive record. As a small factoid on this record, it almost was never made.
The thrashy opening track, “Faceless Ghost” kicks the record off on a high note, while its lyrics talk about singer Jason Smith’s upcoming child, and the fears he experienced thinking that this may be the end for his young band. Fortunately, even if this debut does turn out to also be the swansong, the boys of Stoneghost can still say that they managed to make a strong record. Stoneghost continues to hit hard with Devil’s Motion, which maintains the thrash-influenced sound, but not without adding some punk rock attitude. The third song has more of a grove metal sound than the first tracks, though maintains the heaviness.
Towards the middle of the record, some songs do start to blend together a bit, though this isn’t necessarily a bad thing since their sound is broad enough for it the non-standouts to sound derivative. New Age of Old Ways does finish strong however. The biggest highlight for me would be Third Degree which is a complete headbanger, in all of its simplistic glory. This is another groove-driven track that has one of the catchiest choruses on the record. Let Sleeping Beasts Lie makes for a fitting closer, being one of the mellower songs on the album. It starts of as a mostly acoustic song before transforming into an almost Soundgarden sounding tune. The song makes for a strong closer, however is a bit jarring to go from one of the heaviest songs on the album, Third Degree, straight to this.
As a bonus, Stoneghost has also included a demo for a song called Mother of All Bastards, a good song, but nothing that stands out. Possibly something that will appear on later records, there is also a few minutes of silence at the end before the band breaks into another minute and a bit of riffage.
For a debut, New Age of Old Ways is very good, and quite diverse. Jason Smith can pull off everything from clean vocals, gritty screams, even a few growls that push death metal territory, and his band can match this range on all fronts as well. If you are looking for something new to bang your head to, you can do a lot worse than Stoneghost’s New Age of Old Ways.
Written by: Connor Rae
Ratings: Connor 8/10
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