Nottingham, England is an industrial heartland area – and home to this group The Five Hundred. Establishing themselves during the 2010s, they’ve released two albums to date while playing as many gigs as possible to move up the ladder. Ghostwriter as the third full-length should cement their sound into more followers – especially those that are into a great mix of progressive / djent-oriented styles next to a metalcore foundation. The twelve songs garner additional coloring from special guests locally and internationally, yet fundamentally the quintet executes quite a potent, dynamic sound from initial exposure to repeated, deeper dive listens.
A swirling mix of electronic elements next to conventional aggressive, distortion-driven instrumentation keeps opener “The Death of All We Know” sharp – the infectious chorus resonates with modern, melodic appeal, the musical components shifting between a calmer verse angle into heavier, bouncy parts for the chorus and supplementary vocal support from John Eley. Stunted, low-tuned guitars carry a bulk of the workload, as Mark Byrne and Paul Doughty infiltrate the process with smartly placed clean / ambient angles next to the progressive chunks and metalcore / groove-fueled riffs. Check out the slithering swagger from “In the Dark” or circular runs next to melodic death-like spots throughout “Echoes” as two of many sides to these axe players’ versatility. “Chaos Sermon” leans towards nu-metal heydays, featuring Justin Hill of SikTh to provide screaming contrasts to this impassioned, somber to explosive track, the djent flavoring appearing in the right measures. The impressive juggling of styles song by song open up the playbook for the band – properly lifting these songs from the studio to the stage. It may be a little longer than most records of this style at 44 minutes, but it’s not as if these songs overstay their welcome – there are always smaller details to dig into, be it specific catchy vocal melodies, main chord staples, or the atmosphere transitions that can happen in an instant.
The metalcore movement of today has strength in numbers where additional influences have been exposing artists to a wider following inside and outside the typical heavy music community. The Five Hundred put forth a tremendous effort through Ghostwriter to be in the running for a breakthrough to climb those ranks – as the quality here cannot be denied.