GREAT AMERICAN GHOST (Metalcore – US) – Their new EP “Torture World” is out now via MNRK Heavy #GreatAmericanGhost

Torture World tackles several issues with urgency and passion, not the least of which is the struggle for equality and the resulting social unrest magnified in recent years. “As a white cisgender male, I’m not in a position to say that I am oppressed. It’s not my story to tell,” Harrison cautions. “But I have a huge problem with the disparity that occurs inside of this civilization that we occupy.” Gasparrini came up with the title for the EP. Once that was in place, Harrison took it as a creative cue for all of the song lyrics.

“I wrote all of the lyrics in the studio, as the instrumentals were basically finished when we got there,” he explains. “The first song I wrote was ‘Kingmaker,’ which is about QAnon, which I hate and find exhausting. It’s very thinly veiled racism and antisemitism, much of it recycled from generations past. It is extremely dangerous rhetoric propagated by these scam artists to make money. And it pisses me off.”

The EP’s title track blends atmospheric melodies with unrelenting heaviness, maneuvering swiftly between old-school death metal, uplifting hardcore, and double bass-fueled fury. “Womb” is as fast and severe as anything originating from the frozen forests of Scandinavia, swinging wildly back and forth between blackened death and slow, bludgeoning sludge. “Death Forgives No One” concludes the proceedings, with a progressive bent, equal parts driving and haunting, with an almost esoteric quality beneath it all.

“Torture World has a dual meaning. Some songs on the EP are extremely political, and there are some extremely personal songs,” Harrison points out. “Both things bleed into each other.”

It’s an approach to the lyrical side of the band that continues to apply to their music. Since the first time a punk rocker palm-muted a guitar, there’s been a debate about what constitutes “true” hardcore, crossover, thrash, metalcore, ad nauseam. GREAT AMERICAN GHOST is comfortably beyond that conversation. “I’m so sick of the whole subgenre thing,” says Harrison. “We’ve always been in this middle ground. Some people who listen to metal don’t see us as a metal band. We’ve never been a straight-up hardcore band. So, we don’t really care. I only care whether or not people get it. As long as they get it, or it changes them or touches them emotionally in some way? Call us whatever you want.”

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