Love Ghost – Memento Mori
Last time we checked in with LA-based act Love Ghost, we were emotionally crushed by the dark and heavy alt rock found on his collaborative album, Love Ghost x Skold. A mere four months later, the prolific Love Ghost, aka Finnegan Seeker Bell, is back with another batch of songs that really make you ponder the meaning of existence. Memento Mori is his new seven-song collection, a hard and harsh look at love, loss, and existential reckoning through a unique blend of influences, namely alt rock, emo trap, and Latin urban. Once again, he’s teamed up with a veritable dream team of collaborators – Deer, Plata, Verumicito, Young Aleexx, Katsu Energy, Ardis, and xKori and producers Berdu, Otho, Comisarios and Erving River. The laundry list reads long, but the result is unique and powerful – a blend of Spanish/English lyrics that cross the lines of both genre and culture with appeal from artists ranging from Peso Pluma all the way to Bring Me The Horizon.
The album kicks off with “Decoy,” a collab with Katsu Energy. If you’re familiar with Love Ghost’s canon, you might be expect something more brutal in both energy and lyrical content, but “Decoy” smacks with surprising Deftones flavor, pairing a haunting vocal presence with crunchy, shoegaze-y guitars. Huge, downtuned chords slam through your speakers, laying down a thick and catchy backbone for the duo to experiment over. Trap beats make their way into the song in the 2nd verse adding a less-organic electronic element, before the song climaxes with a spicy and visceral guitar solo – this mish-mash of elements is brilliantly disorienting, but is what makes listening to Love Ghost & co. sound so fresh and fun. On song two, “Chronicles,” Love Ghost gets back to his roots with his only solo venture on Memento Mori. Here, he goes full-mental-breakdown, openly professing his cocaine chronicles, living tragic, and being a proud drug addict. Bell just doesn’t care what you think, and if you needed any further proof of that, “Chronicles” is exhibit A.
There’s lots to dig into across the rest of Memento Mori, including “Imposter,” a strong lead single that deserves a spotlight. A modern-rock-radio-ready riff keeps Bell/xKori/Young Aleexx’s composition rooted among squelching synths, pounding drums, and the aforementioned Spanish/English lyrical onslaught. The verses here are more of a creepily-moaned haunt, whereas the choruses are screamed in a full-throated fervor, bringing to mind the punk antics of Refused. Another highlight comes from “Twosides” – this collab with Ardis boasts some of the most excellent production on the album, showcasing big melodies, hooky rhythms, and a super groovy trap beat that beats into your brain. Ardis’ contributions here are definitely worth noting, playing against Bell’s more spitfire delivery with a dreamy etherealness that stands out in all the right ways.
While we love the no-holds-barred lyrical darkness of Love Ghost’s bread-and-butter songs, there are a few ballads on Memento Mori that hit the spot too – “The Monster Inside” with collaborator Plata Shail, finds the duo embracing regret by locking in, “letting the monster out,” and getting through the bullshit no matter what the cost. Plata’s lilting presence is much appreciated, a heartfelt natural foil to the otherwise crushing screams and confessions found throughout the rest of the album (same goes for DEER’s breathy presence on the industrial trap-influenced “Spiritual Warfare”). Bell and El Verumcito crush it on album closer “Somewhere Up On Mars” too – a bevy of squiggly synths, chuggy bass, and jangly guitars set off the duo’s mid-aughts emo influences perfectly.
Memento Mori is out now (February 28th, 2025). Check out the single, “Imposter,” via the YouTube embed below, and then check out all of Love Ghost’s goings-on via this handy Linktree link. As always, we’re including Spotify and Apple Music links for you to add to your favorite playlists.
Categorised in: Album Reviews
This post was written by Nick Sessanna