VOYAGER: Ghost Mile (PROGRESSIVE METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Some formations have a very personal and immediately recognizable signature. The Australians of Voyager are certainly of this calibre. From their first album "Element V" released in 2003, the Perth-based quintet drew on various styles that were a priori immiscible to give an original and audacious interpretation. The four discs that followed confirmed the art of the combinations that Voyager became an expert in over time. With "Ghost Mile", Voyager wanted to work independently through a participatory fundraising campaign completed in one week!

As its title evokes admirably, listening to a Voyager album is something like an invitation to travel. "Ghost Mile" promises a panorama of sterile and polar landscapes bathed in dazzling melodic light. This sixth album, which refines the work of its predecessors, is an experience that challenges expectations while being familiar. Voyager's music is shaped by the strange but successful combination of modern metal, mainly progressive-djent obedience, and new-wave pop. While it is difficult to compare Voyager's atypical style with other artists, the similarities could be located somewhere between the most accessible Devin Townsend, Disperse, Vola and Leprous on the metal side, and Tears For Fears and Depeche Mode on the pop-rock side.

Everything is in contrast in "Ghost Mile". In the styles already mentioned, but also in the ability to vary dark tones ('Disconnected', the Leprousian'Ghost Mile') and more solar tones ('Misery Is Only Company','Lifeline', his crystalline guitar intro with Disperse and his chorus with Tears For Fears) and to associate ethereal and ambient arrangements with dark atmospheres made of 7 sharp and heavy strings riffs ('Ascension','The Fragile Serene') and exuberant keyboards ('Ghost Mile'). The compositions are built on classic and easily assimilated formats that let the progressive fibre subtly dawn. It is particularly audible during many more technical passages, during bridges, rhythmic breaks and short but imparably dense instrumental sequences ('As The City Takes The Night','What A Wonderful Day', the end of'Ascension','Ghost Mile') and in climbs of refined emotional intensity (the very pop 80's'This Gentle Earth').

These formats allow you to quickly enter the ten tracks of "Ghost Mile", which can be listened to without boredom and at high speed. The fluidity of the couplet refrain assemblies, the quality of the harmonies (the superb and dreamlike mid-tempo interlude "To The Riverside") and the catchy melodies make the album completely addictive. Daniel Estrin is to be commended as the craftsman of the melodic dimension and homogeneity of "Ghost Mile". His timbre, in an ambiguous genre with a strong Gothic and pop component, and his unique performances of scale and relief (reverberation greatly contributes to filling the space with his voice) embody the binder that brings coherence and identity to the pieces ('Misery Is Only Company' whose purity of song once again recalls Tears For Fears,'As The City Takes The Night').

In 44 minutes, "Ghost Mile" synthesizes the essential qualities of Voyager. It is difficult in these conditions to find weaknesses in this album, which, in addition, benefits from a meticulous production that reinforces the sound rendering that is at once clear, precise, massive and almost surgical. Let's hope that with this splendid "Ghost Mile", undoubtedly one of their best achievements and already one of this year's great records, they will achieve the recognition they deserve. - Official website

VOYAGER

GHOST MILE

AUTRE LABEL

PROGRESSIVE METAL