FORGING EUROPE TOUR 2010 Part II

Ghost Brigade – Isolation Songs

When Finland's Ghost Brigade released their debut album, "Guided By Fire" through Season Of Mist Records in September 2007, little did they know of the journey this album would take them on. The word started to spread quickly, the album received lots of positive feedback, and the following year the band was already given the opportunity to perform at bigger, high-profile festivals like Hellfest in France and Tuska Festival in Finland.

"When we put this band together in 2005 we honestly had no idea we'd be here four years later getting ready for the release of our second full-length. Ghost Brigade was formed solely to serve as a genre-free ”sandbox” for all our musical ideas. Simple as that. There were no limitations, no rules, no five-year plans. All we wanted to do was to write music together. We didn't really even think about releasing an album or go out on tour until we recorded our first demo tape, which pretty much changed everything. Coincidentally around the same time our old bands either broke up or were put on hiatus so during a very short period of time Ghost Brigade became everyone's priority and transformed from a project into a real, functioning band.”

”We didn't have any specific expectations for ”Guided By Fire” as it was our debut album so all the positive feedback it received really took us by surprise. We knew we had done a good, heartfelt album and we liked it ourselves but we didn't know how the rest of the world was going to perceive it. I still get goosebumps just by thinking we were able to create something that I know for a fact has affected people on a personal level.”

After two years since the release of "Guided By Fire", Ghost Brigade are here again, ready to unleash "Isolation Songs", their second full-length.

"We are very proud of this album. It's amazing to notice that after writing music for so many years you're still able to say you've done your best work to date and have the same excitement about it than when you first started playing in bands. We still think "Guided By Fire" is a solid album but at the same time ”Isolation Songs”  takes everything on a new, higher level. It clearly shows the tremendous amount of progression the band has gone through over the past two years."

”I'm sure people recognize it's Ghost Brigade once they hear this new record but they will also notice it's not ”Guided By Fire” part two. In general, it has all the same ingredients that defined our sound on the first album but this time we daringly took the whole concept further and threw in a lot of new elements & influences as well. The poppy stuff is poppier, heavy stuff is heavier, gloomy stuff is gloomier. More extremes, more variety, more dynamics and more depth.”

Like it's predecessor, also "Isolation Songs" was recorded at Seawolf Studios in Helsinki, Finland. Antti Malinen, also known as the guitarist of finnish hardcore bands St.Hood and Down My Throat, was chosen to handle the recording and mixing duties.

"Choosing Antti to record and mix "Isolation Songs" was one of the wisest decisions we have ever done.

Antti is the first person in the history of this band who's been able to capture the pure essence of Ghost Brigade on tape which is something we always thought would be near impossible. There are a lot of different elements present in our music so we weren't quite sure if we'd ever find an engineer who would really understand what this band is about. Luckily we found him.”

”Despite the fact that Antti has a background in producing metallic hardcore bands in the past, his view of how Ghost Brigade should sound like is very similar to ours. Needless to say working with him was an effortless and pleasant experience, even if the studio sessions itself, once again, were quite a challenge. We're 100% sure we'll be using his services again in the future as he is the one who made this band shine."

”Isolation Songs” will be released through Season Of Mist Records on August 3^rd, 2009 in Europe and August 25^th in North America.

Ghost Brigade: Veli-Matti Suihkonen – Drums & Percussion, Janne Julin – Bass, Manne Ikonen – Vocals, Tommi Kiviniemi – Guitars & Lapsteel, Wille Naukkarinen – Guitars, Aleksi Munter – Keyboards

guidedbyfire@gmail.com

www.ghostbrigade.net

www.myspace.com/ghostbrigade

www.season-of-mist.com