Live Review: The Ghost Inside w/Boundaries and Gideon at O2 Academy Islington!

Back in 2010 how many Bury Your Dead fans heard that Mat Bruso was making a guest vocal appearance on “Chrono” by The Ghost Inside and checked it out? Guilty as charged. That led to the obligatory purchase of “Returners” and a life long The Ghost Inside fan was created. “Get What You Give” is the personal favourite album, the one that gets played with alarming regularity despite its age, front loaded with wall to wall bangers and who doesn’t love the sound of the shotgun? It’s fair to say it’s been on the playlist to drag us kicking and screaming through some dark times. As a regular gig goer and live music lover, the stars didn’t align to witness them at that time and then the infamous Bus accident happened in November 2015. We had our fingers crossed that they would be able to return in some capacity although given the state of their injuries that didn’t seem likely. Now, two albums later we’re at O2 Academy Islington to see our heroes take to stage in front of a sold out crowd on a Wednesday night in Mid October. It’s been a hell of a journey for them.

How much do London love Boundaries [10/10]? A venue wide circle pit two songs in? Making security work over time on the front row with crowd surfers from song four? Boundaries don’t even need to ask the crowd for a reaction because for ever muscular, angular Metallic Hardcore riff they offer up there is one. From “A Pale Light Lingers” through “Turning Hate Into Rage” to set closer “Easily Erased” each song feels like a home run. Hammered out of the park with 10% more energy than they capture in the studio, feeding off the crowd and making each second count. The biggest surprise is just how good the clean vocal parts from their drummer Tim Sullivan are during the set, not that that they need to be as audience are screaming every word. In truth, the five piece could have been the headliner here tonight, that’s how well they’re received.

It’s not the first time we’ve witnessed Gideon [8/10] at this venue and while the Alabama natives are a Metallic Hardcore band at heart their Nu-Metal tinkering in expanding their sound with 2023 album “More Power. More Pain.” is an interesting move. Opening their set with monster cut “Bite Down” is an obvious choice to get the crowd onside, vocalist Daniel McWhorter switching between harsh uncleans and more rap style flow later on. His Stetson feels like an extension of his personality and his big heart is on his sleeve for all to see. The backing track is leaned upon for vinyl scratching on a couple of tracks mid set, “Take Off” suffering a little for being after the new album title track because it doesn’t hit as hard. Boundaries bassist Nathan Calcagno reprising Knocked Loose vocalist Bryan Harris role on “Cursed” is a special moment before the obligatory “No Love/No One” closes the set in stomp worthy style.

Having been critical of headliners set times of late it’s a great pleasure to see The Ghost Inside [10/10] play a career spanning 70 minutes to a capacity crowd who love every second. The band are welcomed to the stage like returning heroes as the backing track leads into a punishing rendition of “Death Grip” the five piece all smiles as they witness crowd surfing and a circle pit from very start of their part of the show. “The Great Unknown” has become a sing-a-long anthem of huge proportions before new song “Split” absolutely crushes. Vocalist Jonathan Vigil then encourages the crowd to shout “F*** this!” with him during the choruses of “Pressure Points” which goes down a storm. Vigil goes out of his way to point out that the band didn’t know if they would be able to be a full time touring band after the bus accident, taking a moment to remind us that drummer Andrew Tkaczyk is playing the set with one leg. The backing vocals from guitarists Chris Davis and Zach Johnson as well as bassist Jim Riley are surprisingly impressive during arguably the bands most Metalcore song “Wash It Away“, reminiscent of We Came As Romans at their finest. All that’s missing is “Chrono” as a huge 18 songs get played with five older ones culminating in a soul stirring, spine chilling rendition of “Engine 45” that brings the curtain down. The entire audience sings “All my life I’ve been searching for something, To break these chains. To break these chains. But I’ll keep swinging.” with Vigil for each of the eight repetitions and that’s something that’s going to live forever in the memory banks.