Ghost Anthem talk about self-titled EP and the French metalcore scene

Ghost Anthem is a melodic metalcore band drawing influence from classic melodic death metal, traditional heavy metal and modern metalcore. The band took some free time to answer a couple of questions for us, linked to their self-titled EP and the French metalcore scene. Check out the full interview below!


Hello Ghost Anthem, thanks for your time. Would it be possible to introduce your band to our readers, as well as your roles in it? Hello Valentine, sure! We are Ghost Anthem, a metalcore band from France. Five guys who did not know each other just a few years ago but who are now like the five fingers of one hand. The project started with Romain and Vincent, two good friends and guitarists who listened to the same kind of music. Romain worked on a few demos and they started recruiting the crew together. Brice was the first to join as singer, followed by Charles on the drums and Bertrand as bassist. Instead of doing what usual bands do – create good music and play live – we actually did the exact opposite. We created 6 demos and played live very quickly. We absolutely loved this live experience, playing in concert and being in contact with the metal community is our biggest motivation. Then, we worked on the EP to define our identity and have something more mature to play live. We spent a lot of time defining who we were and what we wanted to achieve. We draw our inspiration from a universe of melancholia and introspection and want to create modern, precise and powerful music. At the crossroads of Architects' post-metalcore and Insomnium's melodic death metal. We are also very inspired by bands such as Parkway Drive, who bring so much energy to their audience. About the distribution of roles in the band: we split tasks between members. Romain (guitarist) is our composer, and he produced himself this EP (only mastering was done in a professional studio). Brice (singer) writes the lyrics and manages communication. Vincent (guitarist) is our head of coins (not much at the moment!) and most importantly, our wiseman. Charles (drummer) and Bertrand (bassist) bring a lot of critical thinking to our creation process and manage aspects such as concert lights guidance, gear and equipment, live organization... How would you describe the French metalcore scene? The French metalcore scene is rising with some great bands who got to the next level recently. Landmvrks, Novelists, Betraying The Martyrs, Resolve... Not only did they create music with the ingredients we can expect from metalcore (breakdowns, heavy sound, powerful fry scream), but they also deliver a lot of energy and emotion on stage. We believe the French metalcore scene recently invested a lot on the lyrics. Powerful bands build strong identity and beyond music, they convey messages and are more engaged. That is something we are paying a lot of attention to.
You dropped your self-titled EP back in February 2020. Can you please introduce this release to our readers? For us, this EP is much more than 6 songs: it is a defining moment for our identity, our spirit and our music. We are talking about duality and the contradictions that define us, which is reflected by the concept at the heart of this EP and even in the artwork. We believe that it is okay to be several people inside our heads: we all have multiple faces. It is the theme of our song "Manifesto". For many people, listening to metal is a great way to relate to this duality. We wanted to address these contradictions through topics such as, consciousness, acceptance... For instance, "I Found Hell" talks about sense of responsibility and the gap between what we say and what we do, and our inability to avoid disasters before being very close to them. "Thorns" is a song about accepting our mistakes. No one enjoys doing mistakes and they often hurt, but on the other hand is there any better way to learn things? On the musical side of things, we would describe this EP as melodic, mysterious and powerful. Melodic because the lead guitars are central in the way we create music. Mysterious because we aimed at creating an atmosphere through samples and tone of voice. It is powerful through the violent bridges which bring us back to reality. How long have you worked on this EP? We created everything ourselves, with a lot of love and pain. From inception to launch, we spent more than a year and a half working on this first EP. Writing the right lyrics and voice melodies took much longer than we expected. In the middle of the process, we realized that the level of our demos did not match our expectations, so we studied very hard and re-designed the whole EP. We learnt many other lessons: one of them is that from now on, we will work with professionals on all aspects (recording, mixing, creating video clips...). We are very happy about what came out with this EP, but now it is time to go to the next level. If you had to pick one song that best reflects the spirit of this release, which one would it be and why? "I Found Hell" is probably the song that best reflects this EP, with an alliance of death melo spirit and more modern aspects of metalcore. There is also a variety of vocal styles reflecting the spectrum you can find in the other songs. How’s your usual writing process for your songs? We always start creating the instrumental tracks, but from the start we know what each song will talk about. Once the first demo is created, we write the lyrics and vocal melodies, and a long series of iterations starts. Since we launched this EP, we have been working on new songs and now we pay particular attention to the "live-friendly" aspect of songs. Our main objective is to play live and connect with the audience, so we take this aspect very seriously. We need to create energy all along our set. The last words are for you. If you have any other projects in the making, please do not hesitate to talk about it. We now have three objectives in mind. First, we want to play as many gigs as we can, because this is what gives energy to this band. We started to sign a few dates which we will reveal soon, we can't wait to get back on stage! We are working hard to propose a great live experience – much more developed that what we used to do in the past. Then we keep creating new songs and raise the bar musically, working on an album on the long term, and on one or two singles on the short term. Finally, and this is very important for us: we want to strengthen our identity. Music is important, and so is the live experience. It is a key part of a band and we want to build something that will resonate to people listening to us and will leave a trace. Thanks a lot for the interview, we hope to see you live soon! Thanks for your time!