Calling all goths! *I Am Ghost *have arrived and it’s not a dream. You’re fully awake and this is the punk-rock, prog-rock, concept-album debut of your collective year. _Lovers’ Requiem _had the potential to be an absolutely godawful attempt at a great idea but the Californian sextet have instead turned out a less-cringeworthy, more-complete and much more epic opus than expected.

Reading such ridiculously overblown imagery-laden song titles from the sleeve as _‘Our Friend Lazarus Sleeps’ _and _‘Of Masques And Martyrs’ _as well as the just plain worrying _‘Pretty People Never Lie – Vampires Really Never Die’ _you get the feeling that I Am Ghost have maybe put a bit too much thought into this album and the only thing that awaits you is a dodgy amalgam of not only long-winded but also utterly contrived emo-goth.

The beauty of _Lovers’ Requiem _is that it never sounds unnatural and such is the power and guile of the music that it absolutely flies by. The inclusion of three-way harmonies, a violinist and the ubiquitous emo keyboards make for a wonderfully thick sound that continues all the way from the crap chapel choir that starts the album all the way through all the elaborate movements on this record.

Coming across with all the overblown goth-styled bombast of Aiden with the song substance of My Chemical Romance and the story-telling power of Meat Loaf, this record is both a goth kid’s wet dream as well as the most emo record an emo could own. With your kohl-ed eyes down, and both thumbs up, you also know that nobody else could ever care about this record. And nor will you given a few months.