Before The Dawn hails from Finland and is a solo project of Tuomas Saukkonen. “The Ghost” is their third full length album.
Apparently Tuomas was in a writing mood, because at the writing process of “The Ghost”, he ended up with over 30 written songs. 10 songs ended up on “The Ghost” and with another 8 of those songs, the more slower, darker and melodic ones, Tuomas created another solo project, called Dawn Of Solace. He made a debut CD (The Darkness) for this project, consisting of those 8 songs. A busy guy, that mister Tuomas.

The music on “The Ghost” can best be described as melodic dark metal. It breaths a bit of an early Gothenburg air (think “Whoracle” of In Flames), but the songs have a somewhat dramatic and forlorn feel commonly found with gothic bands like the early Theatre Of Tragedy. This doesn’t go for the speed at which the songs are played, because this is mostly mid or reasonably fast paced.

I have to say that I like this CD for its easy listening factor. The music lacks things like really fancy riffs, staccato rhythms, overdone synth effects and the likes. But it’s surprisingly dynamic and quite varied. I think you can even study with “The Ghost” playing in the background.
Now don’t get me wrong here. “Before The Dawn” is still a metal band/project, and Tuomas and his Live Action Assault Team, as he calls the guys whom he does the gigs with, certainly know how to shred a stage.

What I also like about this CD are the really nice guitar solos which all fit tastefully in the songs that they are played in. No overdone or fancy things here also. The aggressive vocals are ok, but could have a bit more power or been mixed in with more thickness. I like the supporting melodious voice very much though. It sounds a bit angelic and very clear which adds a good contrast.
As I said earlier, the synth effects are not overdone which is one of the things that can easily happen in this kind of music. The effects are just great as they are, and add the right kind of ambience and atmosphere to the album. In fact, the music as a whole is very well written and played. Also thumbs up for the mix and the production.

The only thing that I don’t like about this CD is the spoken part at the beginning of track 9. It rambles about in a hardcore/nu-metal way and there are even some rap vocals present in the middle of this track. This falls completely out of tune with the rest of the tracks. But these are just minor things to an otherwise great CD.
”The Ghost” will certainly turn its rounds in my CD player many more times. So if you like “The Jester Race” and “Whoracle” of In Flames or something along the lines of “Inhumanity” of Mors Principium Est, then “The Ghost” of Before The Dawn is worth checking out for sure.