Ghosts On Pegasus Bridge

From Graves To Grace EP

Written by: TL on 05/02/2009 22:53:57

One of the very last 08-stragglers that I'm going to pick up before focusing exclusively on current releases is also by far the most delayed one. "From Graves To Grace EP" was originally released on the very first day of last year, as the debut EP by Ghosts On Pegasus Bridge, who are finally a band with a name I actually find slightly cool. Unfortunately, that's almost all that these British boys have going for them. Read on to find out why..

On their myspace, the band claims to have pioneered the "EPIC-CORE" genre, and whether or not that sounds intriguing or just merely corny to your ears, what it really means is that they're a pretty emo band that steal with arms and legs from metal and hardcore alike, and judging from the sound of this first release, I'd be more prone to attribute them the label of "GENERI-CORE". This of course does not have to be bad, as I myself at least, is of the slightly controversial opinion that the scene for this kind of music is very much still alive and kicking, churning out interesting upstarts every now and then. Ghosts On Pegasus Bridge just aren't among them (yet), due to a handful of crucial weaknesses on their behalf, two of which are exceedingly grave.

First off, if you're going to go ahead and call your music epic-core, it simply doesn't do that you can't arrange a song to sound more epic than gush of wind blowing a few stones off the roof of your house. Building atmospheric soundscapes and establishing curves of intensity in your music can't exactly be rocket science, as we've seen more than a good share of mediocre bands do this to an at least mildly satisfying extent. GOPB however, stick pretty much to varying their sound between up-beat melodic parts and pseudo-dramatic breakdowns. The simplicity of this arrangement leaves a big burden on the shoulders of the band's vocals, and that's where my second area of dissatisfaction is marked. The majority of the lines are sung with a clean emo-ish vocal that is only just barely bearable to endure. It's got next to power and next to no attitude in its performance and effectively becomes really monotonous to listen to almost instantly. The screams aren't much better off, given that they more or less sound like you're listening to them through the wall, standing outside of a building within which they are performed. Again, against the mass of bands like this one, who are doing it right at least to some extent, this kind of sloppiness just won't do, as can clearly be heard from the overall EP. There is pretty much only one part in which it really holds your attention, and that's towards the end of the closing song "The City Upon A Driftwood: Part 1", and it's only because the band shamelessly rape the song's hookline "So who do you tell that the ship is sinking?" (over and over and over again!).

Overall, this is not a record that's thoroughly terrible or painful to listen to, but it's pretty damn dull and forgettable, and all I can say is that I hope the band do better on the debut LP they're releasing next month.

4

Download: The City Upon A Driftwood: Part 1
For The Fans Of: Open The Skies, Many Things Untold,
Listen: myspace.com/ghostsonpegasusbridge

Release Date: 01.08.2008
A Wolf At Your Door Records

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