Album Review: Tribe of Ghosts - City
Reviewed by Chris Taylor
It’s been a busy couple of years for Brighton metal band Tribe of Ghosts. After their festival stealing set on the New Blood Stage at Bloodstock in 2022 they then spent 2023 showing everyone why we should be keeping an eye on this band. With three singles demonstrating their eclectic, post-metal carnage and a triumphant return to Bloodstock on the Sophie Lancaster stage Tribe of Ghosts have set expectations high for their long awaited debut album, City.
Those expectations have been well and truly met. Tribe of Ghosts have delivered a stunning debut with music that is right on the pulse of where modern metal is right now. Loud, frantic and full of power.
After the intro track City, which sets the tone for the album perfectly, the listener is booted off into Hive. A fast paced and chaotic song that should have any listener’s head thoroughly rattled. A clear highlight for this song, and the rest of the album for that matter, is the vocal pairing of Adam and Beccy. Their mix of gutturals and melodic cleans create a sense of light and dark battling each other further adding to the music’s intensity.
Wanting to explore all the different shades of darkness the album immediately changes course into the doomy excellence of Stargazer, complete with an anthemic chorus and epic final section, False Gods’ industrial sounding verses and Cold’s more brooding and atmospheric approach between the carnage.
The album’s greatest strength is how it maintains a looming sense of dread throughout. Moments of quiet reprieve are regularly met with abrupt transitions back into sonic chaos, demonstrated in Desolation Will Be Their Only Reward, and excellent use of sound effects to enhance the narrative. All this together gives these songs monolithic weight so even Reign, one of the more calming songs, has such grand scope.
All this to say Tribe of Ghosts pack a lot of ideas into their debut album, however it’s all tied together with a continuous sense of desolation and excellent vocal work. City is thoroughly engaging from the beginning all the way through to its end. The skill at crafting tension and knowing how and when to release it is exceptional, the riffs and melodies are suitably epic and brutal in equal measure and itt has top tier production. City is a practically flawless debut album and should demonstrate to anyone that Tribe of Ghosts are one of the most exciting rising bands in the UK right now.
