“Blasterpiece” is the first album released by adventure-rock band Bear Ghost, with its only predecessor being their EP “Your Parents Are Only Marginally Disappointed in Your Musical Taste.” The album was released on February 18, 2016, and has hypnotized the ears of many across the world.
With Bear Ghost’s newest single “I Wanna Fight My Clone” having recently been released, I thought it was high time to review the album that introduced me to this great band.
“Blasterpiece” consists of 11 tracks and lasts around 40 minutes, and that is a time well spent to listen to these great songs. It opens up with the song “Introduction to Blasterpiece,” which immediately shows the listener just how many different styles Bear Ghost can mash into one song. Beginning with just drums and bass and slowly bringing in creepy vocals full of gibberish, it then switches to a more hard rock style with a choir of male voices. The song ends with a more electronic feel, only having a synthesizer and electric drums playing. While this is the weakest track on the album, that only goes to show how strong the other songs are.
“Necromancin Dancin” is the next song on the album, and they were right to put this song in so early. The tone and variety of the instruments, the lyrical writing, the vocals and the overall goofy, but dark nature, all come together to make a masterpiece. I especially love the backup vocals during the chorus, as the band changes it from just a guy holding out notes to something fast and interesting happening behind those long notes. There are good reasons why this song is the most popular of the band’s entire discography. This is also the song that introduced me to Bear Ghost, so it will forever hold a special place in my heart.
“Funkle Phil” is the third track in “Blasterpiece,” blending a hip-hop style with the band’s usual hard rock. Once again, the tone of the instruments and the vocals are tremendous. I especially love the reference to Maya Angelou’s poem “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” during the instrumental break. This song is a must-listen of the album and has definitely become one of my favorite tracks included in “Blasterpiece.”
The fourth song is named “Gypsy,” and it is a stellar one. Much different than the other songs, it is more of a swingin’ theatrical pop feel that Bear Ghost executes beautifully. This song is sung from the point of view of a man who has been enchanted by the looks of a girl he knows he must not love, but does anyways. It is a silly little song nestled in between all of the hard rock of the rest of the album that still fits perfectly well among its peers. It even has a fun little kazoo section that just makes it all the sillier.
The next song is called “Starkiller,” a straight-up hard rock song that is either about a man trying to convince a girl named Ani that he is all she wants and needs in a lover or Anakin Skywalker from “Star Wars” being convinced to fall to the lies of the Dark Side. I personally prefer the latter interpretation as it is much funnier. This song is where the electric guitars shine the most in the album, and I am all here for it. “Starkiller” is such a fun listen and I am so glad it exists.
The next song is the calmest, but no less dark, in the album: “Sickness for Nothing.” The singer in this one sings about an inner battle of trying to find out why life is the way it is and wondering if there is an escape. The main instrument of the song is a synthesizer, which is later paired with drums and electric bass. This minimalistic choice of instrumentation has zero detrimental effects on the fullness of the song, though, as the song slowly builds more and more until the final few lines when the cymbals on the drumset are crashing, the bass is pounding out notes and the synthesizer is supporting it all.
Similar to “Introduction to Blasterpiece,” it is a mostly instrumental track, but that still has zero detrimental effects on it. “Sickness for Nothing” is a surprisingly good listen for a slower song, but making good songs seems to be the norm for Bear Ghost.
Up next is “She-Wrecks,” another song about a man loving a woman he should not have, but this one is set after their eventual breakup. He laments in rock hard enough to rival “Starkiller” about how she changed him into a man he has come to hate and how she is akin to a moralless carnivore. This is yet another very fun listen of the album that I jam out to every time it shows up in the queue.
“Hola Adriana” is the next song in “Blasterpiece,” an alternative rock track with Latin elements that is truly wonderful. This is the third song in the album to talk of relationships, but this one does it in a more lofty way. My interpretation of the song is that Adriana is a fictional character made up by an outlaw that does not want to be in the business of crime anymore. Despite being one of the simplest songs in terms of composition, it still stands strong in the album.
“Paradise” is the barbershop-eqsue ninth song of the album that critiques the superficialness of modern luxuries. Beginning with just vocals and snapping, it quickly returns to the alternative rock feel that embodies the entire album. I find it to be one of the weaker songs in the album, but it is still a good listen nonetheless.
My favorite song in “Blasterpiece” is the tenth one, a not-so-hard rock song titled “All at Once.” This song follows a child tormented by monsters under the bed through his life as he continues to be tormented by these monsters that later turn out to not be just of his imagination.
“All at Once” has my favorite instrumentation of the album, especially with the cymbal work throughout it. This is another must-listen song of the album, and I honestly would say that it is the song one should listen to if they could only choose one from the album for whatever reason there may be.
Finally, there is the song “Prelude.” This song is interpreted as a precursor to an ongoing storyline about a character named Steven Bradley that has been woven throughout Bear Ghost’s discography throughout their next album “Jiminy” and select singles they have released over the years. It is a more waltzy version of rock with vocals that hit notes that are almost impossible but very satisfying for me to hit. Similar to “Introduction to Blasterpiece” and “Sickness for Nothing,” it is mostly instrumental, but is still awesome throughout its runtime.
All in all, Blasterpiece is a masterpiece of an album by the genius that is Bear Ghost. It gets 40 out of 40 well-deserved minutes and its prize is my reconsideration of leaving “Introduction to Blasterpiece” out of my playlist.