With its third studio album (and its first for Epitaph Records), the Los Angeles metalcore quintet The Ghost Inside gets an upgrade in production and a noticeably beefier brawn to its already-muscled music. Singer Jonathan Vigil comes out swinging on the one-two punch opener, “This Is What I Know About Sacrifice.” It's a minute and 29 seconds long, wherein he howls: “I’ll see you at the crossroads!” The following “Outlive” erupts with a rhythm section that sounds like a stampede of elephants rushing a minefield. Vigil’s throat-shredding bellows get even more serious, but that's in part what helped the band inadvertently forge a hardcore subgenre that’s jokingly called “srscore.” The introduction of “Engine 45” boasts great guitar work by guitarist Aaron Brooks, who dynamically shifts from face-punching chug-riffs to ascending arpeggios in a heartbeat. Brooks also handles the unscreamed vocals throughout Get What You Give, adding a boyish tone and a dynamic contrast to Vigil’s blistering esophagus destruction. The Ghost Inside improves on Linkin Park’s balance of melody and chaos in the outstanding “Face Value.”