I stand before you accused. Well, figuratively speaking, that is. Somebody recently said to me, "Why do you do reviews for metal/hardcore bands when you clearly are not all that interested in the music." But who's to say you have to be interested in an entire genre of music in order to appreciate a certain band/musician? I'm not "into" country, but I'll stop and listen to Reba or Garth. I'm not interested in rap, but there's no denying the power of Tupac, and I know who the real "Roxanne" is. So I deny my accusers, I do like metal/hardcore music. But I refuse to be forced to like all of it.

Which brings us to the subject at hand; Give Up The Ghost. The thirteen songs on We're Down Til We're Underground are certainly metal, but the hardcore, I tell you, is strongly punk based. You're hooked from the first strum of an acoustic (or perhaps, unplugged) guitar, which crescendos into a fast-paced, screaming lament to "go[ing] nowhere in a nowhere town." Disappointment, heartache and failure do seem to be the themes to the songs. Consider "We Killed It":

"Saviors are few and far
Between two parked cars
Headed for anywhere
Cause anywhere is better than here.
And on the ride
I have become aware
I'm probably not going anywhere."

The guitar riffs and drum fills aren't exaggerated, they're simply effective and change often enough to keep the songs interesting. Songs such as "Bluem" bring the pace down a notch, with a slightly different guitar sound and a muted, thoughtful lyrical backline. I'm not going to pretend I like every song on this disc, however. "No Lotion..." seemed almost like an afterthought, and perhaps they could have handled curbing some of the screams. But all in all - shock! horror! - I think this is a pretty decent disc.

www.giveuptheghost.com