308 Ghost Train are trying to accomplish a lot with their music, but one thing they aren’t interested in – even slightly – is keeping up with the trends of a jaded mainstream rock sound. Their latest single, “Bleed Over Me,” ushers the band into 2020 with a balladic sound stylized around a vocal-powered hook that could make anyone into a fan of their music. There aren’t many in the game making tunes like this one right now, but that isn’t stopping 308 Ghost Train from giving up what might be the most powerful performance of their career to date.
URL: https://www.308ghosttrain.com/
The instrumentation in this track communicates just as much to us as any of the lyrics here do, and in more than one instance, I would say it extends a level of emotion unto the listener that linguistics just can’t get across. There isn’t any added garnish to the grooves, and the melodies never sound mechanical or manufactured. It’s clear that the guitar is plugged into an amp, a mic is propped up beside the piano, the percussion isn’t being derived from some computerized metronome; 308 Ghost Train don’t have any time, nor any room in their sound, for that kind of gibberish.
This drum part contributes a lot of texture to the grander scheme of things that makes “Bleed Over Me” sound a lot more muscular than it would have otherwise, and between the overall girth of the beat and the vivid mastering that all of the elements in the mix were filtered through, there’s not any muddiness between the artists and their audience. I’m hesitant to call this the most polished piece of music that 308 Ghost Train have released thus far just because of how high they set the bar for themselves last year, but nevertheless, it’s proof of continuous growth without a doubt.
I would have liked just a touch more bass in the chorus, primarily to put an exclamation point on the lyrics, but I can also understand why the band wanted to steer clear of that kind of concept for this particular composition. If the main idea was to distinguish themselves from the competition, avoiding the bottom-end indulgences is definitely the way to go – after all, in the last couple of months alone, I’ve encountered far more sludgy excess in rock than any critic should ever be forced to endure.
APPLE MUSIC: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/308-ghost-train/1464782600?ign-gact=3&ls=1
If you like power ballads as much as I do, you need to consider 308 Ghost Train’s “Bleed Over Me” a must-listen this summer. “Bleed Over Me” doesn’t waste our time with a big intro or any extended solos that last longer than they should; it gets to the bread and butter of its melodicism inside of thirty seconds and holds our attention for the duration of its running time. I’ve got a good feeling about this group’s future, and even if rock is in tumultuous times, they don’t appear to be suffering from the current musical climate in the American underground at all.
Jodi Marxbury