The Ghost Frequency - Never Before Have I seen....
This comes in a sleeve that should really be gracing the cover of that long lost lover of a format, the vinyl record. Reducing it to the relatively tiny size of a CD seems all the more wrong when the cover is cool. With its ghostly, blood dripping font and comic book bloodshot eyes, the contents are more than intriguing.
An ethereal and synthy ghostbusters-esque mini intro gives way to heavy punk riffage and all is well. The American twang in the vocals disappoints considering the London heritage, but is compensated by the eerie horror movie inspired music and reckless punk snarl of attitude. Owing a lot more to the goth punk stylings from across the Atlantic than Good Ol' Blighty, it isn't surprising that the chaotic mess of energy the song achieves somewhat smooths itself out for a college radio friendly chorus (even with all the excess syllables).
The balls-out interlude is much less considered and expresses a lot more as a result. Bouncing from Billy Talent to Eighties Matchbox and back again, The Ghost Frequency are clearly nothing original and fall somewhere short of the fore-runners of this genre, lacking the staple foreboding power to scare the audience. A crying shame really, as the rock scene desperately needs one of these bands to be good before it dies on its arse.
Equally wordy B-side 'We Built These Walls And Watched You Howl As You Knocked Them Down' is a more violent affair, blazing out of the blocks like a shotgun and utilising the 80's synth noise of their beloved movies to to create a much more malevolent and satisfying racket.
I don't blame them for choosing the A-side to promote. I am humming the melody as I write this and it ain't half bad on further listens, but I have to say a nose-bag of popcorn and a old ropey video of 'The House By The Cemetery' is much more preferable.