I remember reviewing Shadows Chasing Ghosts‘ debut mini-album thinking ‘these guys are potentially really good, but they need their own sound’. My initial thoughts on listening to ‘The Golden Ratio’ were ‘Jeez, these guys are good, but they still need their own sound’. And that’s the only thing I can say that’s bad about this record. At face value, for what it is, ‘The Golden Ratio’ is superb. It’s heavy, it’s melodic, it’s catchy – it has absolutely everything you expect from a band of this ilk. It’s spot on.
It’s just I’ve heard all this before. I heard it, albeit not as well produced, on Funeral For A Friend‘s debut EP. Or on the last A Day To Remember album. Or on a million albums in between. To be fair to the band, while they aren’t as good as either of the records I’ve just named, they are streets ahead of most of their peers. ‘Searchlights’, for instance, sounds absolutely enormous. Breakdowns? Check. Riffs? Check. Gang vocals? Check. It literally has everything you require from a band with this type of sound. It’s just a shame it’s all a little familiar and a little borrowed. I think had I heard this record in about 2003 SCG would undoubtedly have been courted by major labels and toured the world over. It’s just, for as good as this album is – and I can’t stress that enough – I’m not sure if the public wants to hear another album like this.
That said, songs like ‘Home’ and ‘the Recovery‘ have riffs that will melt your face, and it’s only the slower tracks that, predictably, fail to rise to the challenge. Shadows Chasing Ghosts are an undeniable talent and they’ve written and recorded a very good album that would probably have received another full star had it come out five years ago. Well worth a listen.