The Ghost of Cain's 30th birthday!

[Guillaume]

In September 2016 it will be THE GHOST OF CAIN's 30th birthday...happy birthday to one of NMA's very best albums (if not the best, ex aequo with THUNDER AND CONSOLATION? )!!

Here's a killer review of a killer album!:

 http://classicrockmusicblog.com/music-review/model-army-ghost-cain/

Do you remember when you first listened to this album and what did you think of it?
And what do you think of this album in 2016?

[Pol]

Thirty years fck remember it well as my girlfriend was pregnant at the time n my daughter will be 30th on the 29th Oct . Seen the tour at what was then the town and country club in Kentish Town. Had already been nma fan for a couple of years. The album marked a bit of transition for nma as it was moose's first proper lp.
Just look at the song list on the back of cd to see how strong this lp is from the hunt to master race with every single song in-between still fcking brilliant. The band could easily play any of these songs today and we would all fcking love it. 9 excellent rock songs will the added haunting beauty of ballad.

[Pumpkin]

Excellent thread, Guillaume! 

I remember skipping a class, simply to get my hands on it from a guy I knew in the local record shop. He wasn't fussed on them, but ordered one or two copies for the shop. Honestly couldn't wait till after class to get it...Expectations were huge, on the heels of the previous release which had just about been worn out through my cassette copy from the original record. Nearly broke the new masterpiece record on the way home, since I was riding a bike...steering it with one hand and holding the record in the other...most lovingly it must be noted...

Got home and put it on the turntable...blown away instantly!

30 years later - still a great album and one which I love to listen to, one which brings back many old memories. Perhaps the best thing is, however, that 30 years later they're still making excellent material, still relevant and still well worth seeing live...AND...without being hopelessly stuck in the past and living in the 80's or the 90s or the 00s.

[Master Ray]

I don't know, I was about eight years old at the time...

...long pause...

OK, nobody's falling for that one  so....

It will always be one of my very favourites, the first NMA album I listened to in full... I posted my full story somewhere on this lovely Forum and it was printed in The Big Magazine a few years back but long story short... I heard some of T+C on a mates car stereo, loved what I heard, rushed out to my local record store the next day, T+C wasn't in stock so I picked up TGOC and thus began an audio love affair that's lasted over a quarter of a century... heck, it's not just about the music, NMA have influenced my life in so many ways, my outlook on the world, the people I've met, my appreciation of other influences, heck even the way I dress  so I can honestly say TGOC was a true life-changing moment.  One that led to many others...

[Coumarin]

That long.. as fresh as ever in my ears. favourite track is poison street, and courage to go with it.

[Master Ray]

That long.. as fresh as ever in my ears. favourite track is poison street, and courage to go with it.

Oh... the only way this album could have been improved is if the lads found a way to squeeze the magnificent 'Courage' onto it somewhere...   

[Shush]

An album I hold in high regard, but confess haven't played it for some time now. When I first got into the band around 1988 and went through the back catalogue, remember liking that album the most at that time from the first couple of listens. "The Hunt" and "Poison Street" still among my favourite  NMA tracks.

Must play the whole album again soon 

[Pol]

Is this now the 21st state of Europe with different stars spangled across the union jack. Oh I'm mixing threads now lol

[Guillaume]

On the dvd about NMA's history released last year, one reviewer says that he wrote in 1986 that it was the best English Rock album since the first The Clash's LP, or something like that!...the Times also praised the album.
First time i listened to TGOC was in 1994 ou 1995.

The album marked a bit of transition for nma as it was moose's first proper lp.

And he did a brillant work on this album and the next!

Just look at the song list on the back of cd to see how strong this lp is from the hunt to master race with every single song in-between still fcking brilliant. The band could easily play any of these songs today and we would all fcking love it. 9 excellent rock songs will the added haunting beauty of ballad.

Indeed!
"Thunder and consolation" often praised as NMA's best album ever has probably more scope, is more epic than "The Ghost of Cain" but i like the tight, "no fat", concise feel of "The ghost of Cain"...it flows beautifully, you can't skip any of these 10 tracks when you listen to the album's short length time...a bit like "The love of hopeless causes", another strong (if more underrated!) album, 7 years later.
I remember Justin once saying in an interview that "Eight" was a return to the simple, immediate style of "The Ghost of Cain" especially after the more convoluted "Strange Brotherhood" album.
I think that "the Ghost of Cain" is the "in between", transition album between the raw, punk, minimalist style of NMA's first two albums and the more wandering,open style, polished sound of the next albums...you have the raw punk rock anthems ("the hunt", "51st state") and also the folk influenced beauty of "Love songs", "Ballad". 

Excellent thread, Guillaume! 

thanks!

[Coumarin]

Can't describe how much I listened to this album. Back in the day this was one side of a C90 cassette, No rest was the other, crammed a few b-sides in to fill up the gaps so the auto-reverse would leave me listening to hiss. Always put the "Dolby" switch to "off" Much crisper sound!

[Master Ray]

Oh!  That thing about hoping an album would fit onto one side of a c90! Because c120's often got tangled in your car stereo...

And 'auto reverse' and choosing whether to choose Dolby on or off...

Happy days...   

[Bunny]

I actually bought it after Impurity, having belatedly got into them, although had heard Vengeance previously. Remember being blown away by Frightened and still think of it fondly.

[c]

I've probably played this album more than any other NMA album. I certainly wore out the cassette version I bought. Actually the second cassette version I bought because I left the first two near the gas fire in my student room one winter evening...but that's another story. I'd been a fan for a whole but not when No Rest had actually come out so this was the first one I bought straight away.  The first time I'd seen NMA Justin had done a little solo slot that included 51st state so I knew that one and I was drawn straight in by The Hunt and Lights Go Out. And I loved Poison Street, Western Dream and the strong finish of Master Race. But the stand out track for me has always been Lovesongs. I was in an ultimately doomed and short-lived relationship and this song always seemed to speak to me and echo how I felt. It probably still does. I still remember her.

[Coumarin]

There were some weird tape lengths back in the day. As I remember there was a Sony C46. The housing was what would now be described as "hi-vis"

TDK brought out an AR100 "acoustic response" which you could cram a bit more on to, but it was the same thickness as the C120 in the end and suffered the same inevitable tangled fate. C60s and C90s were masters then.

Another thing was tape position.

Type I normal (Fe2O3)
Type II Chrome (CrO2)
Type IV Metal  (which metal?)

What was the mysterious type III tape???

     

[Pol]

Weird how we all fell for the chrome tape etc bs , did it make it sound any better. Glad that tapes have been resigned to the past never to return . I actually still have the original goc tape and a couple of other nma tapes, I have them on display.