Album Review: Great American Ghost – Tragedy of the Commons (SharpTone Records)

Metal maniacs, Great American Ghost are back with their brand-new album, ‘Tragedy of the Commons’, out 31st January on SharpTone Records.

Expect heaviness that is downright dangerous sounding and get heaviness that is downright dangerous sounding. That’s Great American Ghost for you, but somehow the quartet have found fresher, darker and more powerful levels to their sound here. Tragedy of the Commons is this band at their most brutish, while having exceptional creative layers that set the senses alight. You might think you’ve heard it all before, but their delivery is wholly unique, and exemplified by a series of tracks that showcase so much of what they have to offer.

Beginning with a wild and furious offering in the form Kerosene. This beast of a track has twisted industrial heaviness that has intense shades of Ministry and bands of that ilk. Except that Great American Ghost have really taken the sound and style in a modern direction. It’s carnage, but it’s addictive carnage.

Get used to that, the addictiveness, especially as the following Echoes of War is a mighty, meaty and methodical blast of heavy. One that just so happens to have a staggeringly good chorus and puts this track more in the metalcore camp. Whereas Lost in the Outline has shades of post-hardcore, the melody having a darker tone, but the most notable thing being the moments where it turns into a concerted effort to pummel the mind into mush. It just about succeeds too, especially when a breakdown comes along that will leave all seeing stars.

While they have creative strings to the bows, there’s nothing quite like Great American Ghost when they’re going hell for leather, and Forsaken is one of those. However, as sharp as this one is, the chorus just soars. One of the album’s most anthemic efforts. Complimented by the deeper and darker sound of Ghost in Flesh. This is Great American Ghost pushing their technical abilities even further (there’s some Meshuggah worship here in places) and finding new ways to combine genres in subtle, but clever ways.

While they’re renowned for their high-quality output, this album is them at their absolute finest. So much so, that by the halfway point, it already feels like the heaviest album of 2025. Something that doesn’t change when Writhe has stompy fury embedded in every part of it, Genocide makes methodical industrial-tinged heaviness something to be terrified of, and Hymn of Decay demands you dig deep to find your belligerent side.

An easy demand to give into when this, and everything around it, comes with such addictive qualities. Unrelenting heaviness has never sounded so appealing.

Sold yet? Of course you bloody are, and I’ll be head banging to this one all year long, but if you need a touch more convincing, there’s a few more before the album wraps up. Enjoy the big metalcore anthem that is Chapel Paralysis, the manic Reality//Relapse, and the sneering and snarling brutishness of God is A Loaded Gun. All brilliant in their own way.

Now stop reading and go listen, you’ll be so glad you did.

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Great American Ghost – Tragedy of the Commons Track Listing:

1. Kerosene
2. Echoes of War
3. Lost in the Outline
4. Forsaken
5. Ghost In Flesh
6. Writhe
7. Genocide
8. Hymn of Decay
9. Chapel Paralysis
10. Reality//Relapse
11. God is A Loaded Gun




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Great American Ghost - Tragedy of the Commons (SharpTone Records)
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