Music / Season of Ghosts

L-R: Paul, Sophia, Sam, Max

In the middle of
the world I stand, unbreakable.
Take a leap of faith,
create your own fate, unshakable.

A Greco-Italian Industrial Metal band conceived in Japan and currently based in the UK, Season of Ghosts (abbreviated as SoG) describes itself as "a spiritually groundbreaking intergalactic music project, dedicated to the love for the unseen and film soundtracks". The band was founded by singer Sophia Aslanides in 2013 and takes the hybrid metal trance fusion of her former band Blood Stain Child's εpsilon to a whole new dimension by adding orchestral and industrial elements.

The band dropped their debut The Human Paradox in December 2014, to massive fanfare and some critical acclaim, and a Remix Album Remixing the Paradox within a year of release. They decided to take a break for the next couple years, their only release during the period being "Surreal", a collaboration with Russian industrial metal act Fatal FE (formerly Fail Emotions), who had previously contributed a track to Remixing the Paradox. In 2018, the band worked on and in October of that year released their sophomore A Leap Of Faith, showcasing a more consistent sound and more prominent vocals from Sophia.

They are currently at work on their third album.

Members

Current lineup:

• Sophia Aslanides — vocals (2013-)
• Zombie Sam — guitars, keyboards, orchestral arrangement (2013-)
• Tomas Eduardo - bass (2022-)
• Lordt - drums (2022-)

Former members:

• Paul Dark Brown — bass (2013-2019)
• Max Buell — drums (2013-2022)

Discography

• The Human Paradox (2014)
  "Dream; Paralysis"
  • Remixing the Paradox (2015)
• A Leap of Faith (2018)
  "A Place to Call Home" (Japanese)
  "A Leap of Faith"
  "Listen"

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Season of Tropes

• Album Intro Track:
  • The Human Paradox kicks off with "Nothing Disappears Without a Trace".
  • A Leap of Faith has "The Road So Far".
• Badass Boast: the hooks of "Genesis - The Phoenix Syndrome" and "Dream; Paralysis".
• Broken Record:
  • The line "Life is so strange" repeats during the back half of "A Place to Call Home".
  • Also "Leave the light on, breathe, breathe" in "Dream; Paralysis". If you listen carefully, Sophia is whispering all the repetitions herself instead of it being just her voice looping over and over before the final hook.
  • 'We are, we are / Like fire in the wind' in "How the Story Ends".
• Concept Album: Very loose ones.
  • The Human Paradox is tied together by contradictions written all over the lyrics.
  • A Leap of Faith is peppered with self-empowerment anthems and songs about getting back up on your feet.
• Costume Porn: While working on their second album, the band endorsed ethnopunk fashion brand Psylo, showing off their getup in the video for "A Leap of Faith".
• Cover Version:
  • SOG's first release ever was a cover of "Come, Little Children".
  • For Christmas 2016 they covered "Sally's Song" from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: Sophia wore an outfit with similarities to EGL◊ up until the A Leap of Faith era, at which point she switched it out for a more ethnopunk look.
• Epic Rocking:
  • "[NE]:MESIS - The Kiss of Justice", "Beautiful Eternal Things", and "Reincarnation" all last just under six minutes.
  • Half the tracklist of Remixing the Paradox last above five minutes, the longest being "Quantum - Through the Looking Glass" (Neuroticfish Remix) coming in at seven.
• Eyepatch of Power: Sophia in the music video for "A Leap of Faith" combines this with a full fringe.
• Genre-Busting: This band has been described as electronic rock, Gothic Metal, Symphonic Metal, Industrial Metal, among others. Thanks to Italian and Japanese influences as well, the band instrumentation alone can almost pass for Melodic Death Metal and/or Visual Kei depending on the song.
• Genre Roulette: THP starts out as straight electronic metal during the first few tracks but after a Surprisingly Gentle Song takes a turn for diverse. Remixing the Paradox has SOG and friends playing more of a style roulette, with most of its tracks falling under EDM.
• Humans Are Flawed: "The Great Unknown". Escalates to Humans Are Bastards with "In Hubris".
• Indecipherable Lyrics: Due to her breathy singing in The Human Paradox, Sophia's words tend to blend into the music itself more than stand out. She averts this later on, but sometimes has to battle the fortissimo of the music.
• In the Hood: Sophia wears a hood in the cover◊ of A Leap of Faith to give off a mysterious vibe.
• Laughing Mad: "Beautiful Eternal Things", pre-first verse, ending with a short Careful with That Axe.
• Lonely Piano Piece: "You Are Not Your Pain", the epilogue to A Leap of Faith.
• Lyrical Dissonance: "Listen" is quite upbeat and bouncy for a song that screams "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Male Band, Female Singer: Season of Ghosts is Sophia's brainchild first and foremost, but come A Leap of Faith the project has begun to sound more like a band.
• Mood Whiplash: "How the Story Ends" and "Quantum - Through the Looking Glass", among others, have gentle intros that then shift into harsh electronic/metal sections counterbalanced by Sophia's vocals.
• Multinational Team: Conceived in Japan by a Greek singer teaming up with an Italian musician, settled in Britain and now joined by two Brits and (on occasion) a Russian.
• New Sound Album: A Leap of Faith has a more consistent mishmash of Industrial Metal, arena rock (especially the latter half), and Visual Kei.
• Ominous Music Box Tune: "Nothing Disappears Without a Trace" and "The Road So Far". They like to do this on an Album Intro Track.
• The Only Believer:
  I'm afraid that God is speaking, but no one's listening.
• Performance Video: "Dream; Paralysis".
  • "A Place to Call Home" alternates between Dress Rehearsal Video and the band hovering Turin in a helicopter.
• Punctuation Shaker: "[NE:]MESIS" and "ASTERO[:ID]". "Dream; Paralysis" is subtler.
• Reincarnation Romance / Star-Crossed Lovers: "Reincarnation".
• Shout-Out:
  • The Matrix: "Time Travellers" samples Neo's final speech in the film.
    • "Quantum - Through the Looking Glass" has Sophia herself channeling Morpheus before the final chorus.
  • The pre-verse to "Beautiful Eternal Things" takes a sample off the climax of The X-Files: Fight the Future.
  • "The Road to Acheron".
  • "There and Back Again".
• Siamese Twin Songs: "Dreaming in the Gray Lands" and "The Road to Acheron".
• Single Stanza Song: "Surreal".
• Smoky Voice: Sophia doesn't smoke but she does try out a low gravelly speaking voice in "Time Travellers".
• Soprano and Gravel: Downplayed. Sophia does occasional Harsh Vocals in tracks like "Genesis" and "Beautiful Eternal Things". Averted in A Leap of Faith, then comes back for "In Hubris".
• Stage Name: Zombie Sam, whose real name is Sam Domenico.
• Surprisingly Gentle Song: A few songs from The Human Paradox are much gentler than their usual fare, including the Title Track.
• Translated Cover Version: "A Place to Call Home" has a Japanese-chorus version at the tail end of A Leap of Faith.
• Walking the Earth: "A Leap of Faith", with some Scenery Porn on the side.