Haters might think that Ghostemane's embrace of heavy-metal imagery and attitude into the genre-bending hip-hop he's best known for is nothing but surface-level trend-hopping. But the truth is that the recent Revolver cover star's love for the genre runs deep — the dude was in a hardcore band called Nemesis as a kid, has a black-metal side project Baader Meinhof to this day, and even his vocal style and music in his main outlet often veer very close to metal, industrial and hardcore levels of heaviness.
Ghostemane has paid tribute to his roots and furthered the depth of his own work with the release of a new hardcore punk EP, Fear Network. This isn't some novelty record or a passing attraction: Ghoste has dropped a legitimately heavy-as-fuck offering that evokes the mosh-pit-fuelling attack of Cruel Hand or Incendiary. The EP's three cuts are all perfect short shocks, with the whole thing running at under five minutes. Ghostemane's vocals are ferocious as hell, mostly screamed but sometime incorporating the occasional rap flourish like on "Carbomb." It's quick and dangerous as hell, the perfect thing to shut up the nonbeliever on your friends' list who has been bitching about the blurring lines between rap and rock too long.
