Love Ghost – “Sabertoothed” strikes a perfect balance between staying true to their roots and evolving

Alternative rock band Love Ghost, step up to the plate with their newly released, pre-pandemic written EP, “Sabertoothed” produced by Danny Saber (Rolling Stones, Marilyn Manson, David Bowie). The 4-track project which is about “the internal battles that clash inside us all as we find our way through life,” is an exclusive Soundcloud release. In an era that has produced very few exiting rock bands, Love Ghost is an anomaly. Their music contains flashes of Emo feels, trap beats, and guitar-driven crunch, alongside gigantic hooks and soaring choruses, making them both an outlier and overwhelmingly mainstream ready.

Front-man Finnegan Bell (lead vocals, guitar), is savvy enough to know that the line between familiarity and evolution is a fine one, so Love Ghost’s releases have managed skillfully to navigate change while hewing to the group’s basic template. He is perfectly assisted in this task by Ryan Stevens (bass, backing vocals), Daniel Alcala (guitar, engineer, backing vocals), Samson Young (drums, backing vocals), and Cory Batchler (keys, backing vocals).

On the opening “Tribe”, many of the familiar elements are present, from Bell’s soaring vocal and rousing, triumphant choruses to the grungy guitars, pulsating basslines and surprising keys that subtly underpins them. “This song is about feeling betrayed by someone who used to be close to you, and learning that you need to be careful who you trust,” explains the linear notes. An aura of anger and indignation is omnipresent in the song that also forges a killer guitar solo.

“Stand up for yourself when people try to tear you down,” advises “Step In The Arena” as the synths swing and swirl, cutting their way across the wall of overdriven guitar riffs. The lead vocals move between mellifluous hooks and rapped verses, leading the Love Ghost into the new decade. The track drives inexorably to those yearning, multi-layered choruses that Finnegan Bell does so well, perfect for singing emotively with an impassioned demeanor.

Love Ghost is an alternative arena rock band with a penchant for street credibility, monstrous melody and stadium grandeur. These songs here are a tour de force, a mission statement that Finnegan Bell and Love Ghost are constantly in motion, moving outside the boundaries of strict genre definitions.

The affliction-filled “Hated” takes their sound down the rabbit hole, in a song about feeling like an outcast and the mental effects thereof. The song alternates between slow ethereal passages and busting out of the gate with a building instrumental and crushing riffs.

“War, I Swear” – a song about a toxic relationship, and the inability to conceive a declining compatibility, closes the show down with the usual Love Ghost swagger and an erupting instrumental exuberance perfectly constructed for mainstream rock radio. Over and above their playing skills, Love Ghost’s songwriting is a highlight once again on this EP.

“Sabertoothed” proves that Love Ghost continues to be a band worthy of praise. Most importantly, they have delivered a recording with numerous strong messages about the afflictions of life that need to be heard. Love Ghost create with purpose and passion in every release they produce, and “Sabertoothed” is no exception. They strike a perfect balance between staying true to their roots and evolving.