Introducing: The Ghost I See

Emerging from the deep south of France is the engaging post-hardcore meets metalcore sound of The Ghost I See, who describe their music as “catchy, open and powerful.”

The Perpignan quintet of Loïc (vocals), Ritchy (lead guitar), Gaël (rhythm guitar), Geoffrey (bass) and Vince (drums) formed in 2019 out of a shared love of music and, to some extent, the metal genre. They’d known each other from previous projects and actually started out with two vocalists – a lead singer and a lead screamer – but their screamer departed last year. But the blend of heavy and melodic vocals remain in the band’s catchy sound.

And on what to expect from their music, Gaël tells us: “If you want heavy guitars with groovy drums, catchy choruses and great melodies overall, all sprinkled with heavy riffs, hard samples and harsh vocals, take a listen to our songs.”

Our latest taste of this is their new EP Resilience, which was released in March. On the EP as a whole, Gaël told us: “We’re really stoked to see how well this EP has been received! We got songs that were on Spotify editorial playlists, our music video for the song Outside got a quite good amount of views on Youtube and overall the love we had from long-time and brand-new listeners is overwhelming. For those who didn’t listen to it yet, we highly recommend listening to Resilience in its entirety, to really embrace, feel and get into the energy we’re trying to give through our music.”

The EP opens up with Ignorance Is Bliss, which opens up with slightly menacing almost spoken vocals, but blasts into life with a huge wall of guitar chords. Engaging rapped vocals “Face the fact that our world is black, The venom spread and we’re getting numb, There is no going back” take over. Heavy vocals come in and feed into an engaging chorus “You don’t want to believe, That the change is up to you, Tell me how do you feel, When you’ll see how we’re fucked up.”

The pace drops before crushing chords and a slightly sinister synth sound that give way to a lively verse and another chorus. Check it out in the stream below:

The title track Resilience opens up with chunky stabbing chords supporting heavy vocals, which give way to engaging clean vocals that feed into a more melodic chorus. The chunky chords return and feed into another heavy verse and the engaging vocals.

There’s more of the same on the We Don’t Belong, which features deliciously heavy guitars, and Losers, which starts a little slower but builds to a trademark catchy chorus “Who are the winners without any pain, You can’t lose if you don’t take risks, But there’s no win without any bets, Take a bow, Aim and shoot the arrow.”

The EP closes with the aforementioned Outside, which starts out with a low synth sound and a stabbing noise that drops out and explodes into heavy guitars and drums. Loïc’s engaging vocals take over and lead into a big singalong chorus “Don’t try to push me on the outside, Of your comfort zone, Don’t try to push me outside, Who do you think you are? Payback time will come.” Chunky guitars jump in and feed into a more intense second verse and a second chorus, which drops into heavy guitar chords and pounding drums leading into a huge final chorus. Check it out in the video here:

The Ghost I See’s music is heavily influenced by Linkin Park and While She Sleeps, as well as the likes of Wage War, I Prevail and Blessthefall.

And on what inspires them to write music, Gaël explains:  “As humans, our lives are made of different energies, situations and experiences that we are trying to describe and address in our lyrics. Some of them are more personal than others but overall we know that people will always find a bit of their lives in our songs. We tend to use all the good things that we find in different genres, to always keep an open mind in music creation.”

We’ve not featured too many French bands recently but on their country’s scene, Gaël said: “First of all it’s nice to see the interest we have overseas, thank you for that! The scene here is starting to get good attention from international listeners. The rise of bands such as Landmarks and Resolve is giving a real boost to the rock/metal scene in France that’s been a bit quiet for some time.

“The French metal community is becoming more and more supportive and engaged in the local scene and that’s so great to see. After the pandemic, it’s refreshing to see that. We need to keep up the pace and grow the community all together bands and fans!”

The Ghost I See are in the recording phase of new songs they’re eager to release, as well as a new music video coming soon and new gigs to be announced shortly.

And Gaël adds: “We’re working hard on cool things and we keep pushing further with every new song. This band is a real human experience that none of us would stop. Our love for music brought us together and we hope it will spread out to you as well. Keep supporting your local scene, the international scene and us if you like what we’re doing! And we hope to see you soon at gigs or on social media.”

You can follow The Ghost I See on Facebook and Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.