Boston metalcore quartet Great American Ghost released a new record in the fall of 2017 called “Hatred Stems From the Seed.” There’s plenty of bellowing rage and blunt force behind the music. The opening track, “No Savior,” sounds like a howl of atheistic anger. “Lifeless,” “Damnation” and “No Love” are other song titles on the album.
The band’s music is built on churning and battering riffs, with not a lot of ornate frills and solos to offset the meaty center. The middle and lower registers are Great American Ghost’s preferred frequencies. Distorted guitar lines get clipped off with staccato off-beat 16th notes in a fashion that’s satisfyingly abrasive and jarring. Neck muscles and vocal cords must be the first physical casualties in making such head-banging, gravel-voiced music.
It’s not the music of joy and happiness, but if you feel a pulsing and smoldering anger at the state of the world, at religious hypocrisy, and about abuses of power of all kinds, the music of Great American Ghost might provide a cleansing sonic fire for the new year.
Great American Ghost performs at the Webster Underground, 31 Webster St., Hartford, on Friday, Jan. 5, at 6:30 p.m. on a bill with five other bands. Tickets are $14 860-525-5553 and webstertheater.com.
