3 – The Ghost You Gave to Me (2011)

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After four years since the band’s last release (“The End Is Begun”), 3 returns with a more consolidated but equally excellent release under the title “The Ghost You Gave to Me”. With a very eclectic mixture of styles in each of the band’s previous releases, it feels that they have now unified their style and deliver a very well crafted mixture of Progressive Rock elements with a modern alternative music edge, and a few surprises here and there.

Before you go running out the door after reading ‘alternative music’, 3 delivers plenty of powerful guitar melodies and well crafted riffs to satisfy any Progressive music fan. The vocals are very well crafted into the overall structure of the songs, allowing “The Ghost You Gave to Me” to have a very rich sound and never get dull (like many prog releases tend to get).

Opening with the ethereal “Sirenum Scopuli”, the band prepares the listener for a truly interesting musical experience with this release. Seamlessly merging with the intro track, “React” starts things very emotional thanks to Joey Eppard’s vocals and interesting lyrics. The percussions and acoustic guitars are excellent in this track, but the way they are contrasted with the distorted guitars is what made us really enjoy this song, as well as the progressive passages.

In a bigger progressive fashion, “Sparrow” delivers very catchy vocal sections. The percussions on “High Times” mark a nice change of pace in things. Things get a bit weird and experimental with “Numbers”, having some excellent guitar work and a nice Dream Theater vibe to it. “On With the Sun” delivers some very dreamy acoustic guitars with a nice older Progressive Rock feeling to it, making this song one of our favorite ones of this release. 

The album title track delivers a more steady Progressive Rock/Metal approach and features some very vocal lines and a great guitar solo. “Pretty” and “Afterglow” delivers some more alternative punches, and while not our cup of tea, they work very well with the overall flow of this release. “Its Alive” has that old-school vibe that many older Progressive bands have, making it our favorite song of this album. If you want interesting guitars, “Only Child” delivers a very interesting opening section before fully exploding into some heavier guitar riffing.

Closing the album we have “The Barrier”, a very mellow song that nicely closes a very well crafted and emotional release. If you liked the band’s older material, you will love “The Ghost You Gave to Me”. However, if you are the occasional Progressive Rock/Metal listener, you will also enjoy the vast majority of the tracks presented in this excellent release due to their interesting complexity and multiple layers to them.

Band: 3 Album: The Ghost You Gave to Me
Label: Metal Blade Records

Release: October 11th, 2011

Oficial Site myspace
Genre: Progressive/Alternative Rock

Country: USA

Rating: 86/100
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