(how to live) As Ghosts, released in 2017, is 10 Years’ comeback album, as the band was ready to break up after the last one. This album is straight up hard rock in its entirety, only slowing down for Lucky You. Novacaine is the most upbeat song, while The Message is on the quicker side. Vampires features a bridging section that I think would sound better if it was screamed instead of being high sung. Catacombs and Blood Red Sky alternate between soft for versus and heavy for choruses. Burnout, Phantoms and Ghosts follow the same pattern of being ready for radio. Halo’s starts off slower before exploding into energy after a minute.

There’s a lot of lead guitar throughout the album, with every song utilizing the two guitar setup, heard on songs like Catacombs and Insomnia. Rhythm guitar focuses on barre chords and individual notes, while lead guitars use plenty of single string note patterns. The singer has a higher vocal range than most, thus requires singing in a higher key. There’s hardly any screaming in this album, instead there’s a fair bit of whisper singing alternated between anthem choruses. Much of the drumming follows the hi-hat pattern for versus, and switches to crashes and rides for the choruses. Lower toms are used in songs like Halos and the Messenger, but still remain too few.

The easiest song on the album or guitarists is Novacaine because it’s only one riff slightly varied, and an octave chord solo during the bridge. Lead guitarists will find challenge in learning all the lead riffs of Catacombs, while Ghosts will provide challenge for rhythm guitarists by changing chords and strings rather quickly. The Messenger is harder for drummers due to the low tom fills in the pre-chorus. Phantoms is the hardest for bassists as the pattern audible in the beginning is found throughout the album.