CCMusic.com

Vinyl LP pressing. 2023 release. With a musicality as heavy and hard-hitting as singer Joel Birch's intensely emotional lyrics-about suicide, gun violence, religion and mental illness-Not Without My Ghosts finds The Amity Affliction at their brutal best. With four vocal features, including rising Los Angeles talent Phem, the band's first female feature, on the title track, the Australian quartet's eighth LP pushes the boundaries and genres of heavy music. The album's 10 songs were self-produced at Grove Studios in New South Wales. Not Without My Ghosts follows 2020's Everyone Loves You... Once You Leave Them and several non-album singles in 2021-22. For Not Without My Ghosts, "We wanted to go as heavy as possible," says bassist/clean singer Ahren Stringer. "On "I See Dead People" (which features Louie Knuxx, the New Zealand rapper who died unexpectedly in 2021), we just went balls-to-the-wall to show off that side of us, letting people know we're not a one-trick pony." Proof positive of TAA's versatility is the song "Not Without My Ghosts" ft. Phem, which closes the album with a decidedly spooky and softer energy. From start to finish, TAA's whisper-to-a-scream energy, clean and unclean vocals and Dan Brown's masterfully dynamic guitar work underscores each track's dramatic ups and downs.