The Ghost Inside (album)

On the morning of November 19, 2015, the tour bus being used by metalcore band The Ghost Inside collided with a semi-trailer truck outside El Paso, Texas, while en route to a show in Phoenix, Arizona. The bus driver died, and one other fatality was reported in the accident.[1] While all members of the band and crew survived, many received serious injuries.[2] Lead vocalist Jonathan Vigil, lead guitarist Zach Johnson, and drummer Andrew Tkaczyk were taken by helicopter to the University Medical Center of El Paso, and were reported to be in critical condition.[3] On January 13, 2016, Vigil described his injuries in an Instagram post, which included a fractured back, damaged ligaments, and two broken ankles.[4] Two days later, Tkaczyk said he had been in a coma for ten days following the accident and that one of his legs had been amputated.[5]

On March 22, 2016, Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman announced via livestream The Ghost Inside would play at the festival in 2017.[6] Three days later, The Ghost Inside announced that touring guitarist Chris Davis, formerly of Texas in July, would be joining the band in a permanent capacity.[7] On February 10, 2017, Vigil announced the band members were not healthy enough to perform at the festival.[8] Lyman continued to hold a spot for them on future Warped Tours.[9]

The Ghost Inside held their first practice session since the accident on April 17, 2018, and shortly afterwards announced on Facebook that the band planned to return after recovery.[10] In January 2019, a fan asked the band on Twitter if they were working on new music; the band responded with a photograph of themselves.[11] On February 15, 2019, The Ghost Inside released samples of new material via Twitter.[12] On August 16, the band announced they would release a new album, and that they were working with Jeremy McKinnon of A Day to Remember and Will Putney of Fit for an Autopsy.[13] McKinnon had produced the band's two previous albums, Get What You Give (2012) and Dear Youth (2014); Andrew Wade also returned as an audio engineer from the production of Dear Youth.[14][15]

Described as metalcore[16] and melodic hardcore,[17] The Ghost Inside is a record that is intended to channel the sound of the band's 2010 album Returners.[16] Vigil told Josh Chesler of Spin the long hiatus between albums, coupled with the band's high-profile accident, meant "we knew we had to really deliver on this record. We couldn't sell anything short, and we had to give it all 110%."[18] Both the album's opening track "Still Alive" and its closing track "Aftermath" proclaim the band's triumph over tragedy, though not all the songs bear overt references to the bus collision.[19] Bassist Jim Riley said the album "isn't about what happened to us. We don't get lost in that one day. This is about our journey, our growth, and who we are."[20] Unlike The Ghost Inside's earlier albums, which aim to "take the listener on a journey from dark to light", the band chose to theme different songs on specific emotions, without necessarily focusing on a positive aspect at all in a given song.[21] Unlike most of the band's lyrics, "Pressure Point" notably uses profanity. The band generally avoids featuring it in their songs, but Riley stated that "sometimes you’re just so fed up that nothing less than a big loud fuck will get the job done".[21]

The production process began with two weeks of demo recordings at McKinnon's and Andrew Wade's studio, The Audio Compound, in Orlando, Florida, during May 2019.[22][23] The band took a break for their July comeback show,[23] and then finished the album at Graphic Nature Audio in Belleville, New Jersey, in February 2020.[22][23][24] All five members were present in the studio while recording The Ghost Inside, unlike the band's previous records, for which each member had recorded their parts individually.[25] The decision to self-title the album came when no other suitable suggestions could be found. Vigil explained that the original intent was to choose a title which accurately summarized the events the band members had gone through in the previous five years, but nothing they thought of was satisfactory.[26] The album's cover artwork is a collage of images of fans' tattoos dedicated to the band.[27]

The Ghost Inside announced details of their upcoming album, as well as the first single "Aftermath" and its music video, on April 22, 2020. The band chose "Aftermath", as the album's opening single because it "allows anyone that listens into our world, but it also lets us put final punctuation on that chapter of our lives".[28] The music video for "Aftermath" opens with footage of the 2015 tour bus crash before showing Vigil performing at what appears to be the site of the accident, interspersed with images of Tkaczyk recovering from his injuries.[29] The album's second single "Pressure Point" was released on May 12; according to Riley, the band "embraced being pissed off and let it pour out through some of the most aggressive and pointed lyrics we've ever had".[21][30]

The Ghost Inside was released on June 5, 2020; the band chose to keep to the original release date despite the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Riley:

We don't know when things are going to go back to normal, so if we just sit here and wait for things to go back to normal, we could be sitting on this record for six months or a year. And what do we have to lose? Life is gonna be fucked up enough.[31]

The day of the album's release, Rashod Jackson of Bracewar accused Riley of using a racial slur against a tour bus driver.[32] Viewing the controversy as a threat to the band's comeback,[33] the Ghost Inside announced they had parted ways with Riley the next day.[34] By September, the other band members expressed regret over his dismissal;[33] when the band was able to tour Europe again after pandemic restrictions were lifted, Riley was playing with the band again.[35]

Information adapted from The Ghost Inside liner notes.[22]