GHOST SHIP OCTAVIUS: Delirium (PROGRESSIVE METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

In the chronicle of the late Warrel Dane's posthumous album, we mentioned the shattered fate of his group Nevermore, whose activities ceased abruptly in 2010. Two years after this hiatus, Nevermore Van Williams drummer teamed up with Warrel Dane guitarist Matt Wicklund to form Ghost Ship Octavius. The arrival of singer-guitarist Adõn Fanion allowed the Americans to release their first album in 2015. After the 2016 ProgPower tour and the 2017 70000 Tons Of Metal cruise, the band's popularity began to take off.

Ghost Ship Octavius practices a melodic metal that can be described as power metal, but sticking to this attribute alone does not reflect the degree of refinement that Americans strive to cultivate in "Delirium". When Ghost Ship Octavius limits himself to the strict limits of power (and speed) metal, the result is average, and the modestly melodic 'Saturnine' and 'Delirium' testify to this. It is elsewhere that Americans really make the difference, when their metal is enriched with acoustic instruments and symphonic arrangements, original atmospheres and skillful constructions.

Ghost Ship Octavius builds his demonstration step by step along a "Delirium" that gets thicker track by track. The beginning is dedicated to melodic efficiency with two excellent combinations, "Turned to Ice" and "Ocean of Memories", which combine darkness and sensitivity. Unfortunately, the two weak beats mentioned above caused the album to stagnate about ten minutes before Ghost Ship Octavius resumed its progression with a "Ghost in the Well" with dark atmospheres and songs delivered with a touch of originality. Ghost Ship Octavius delays one last time with the superb power ballad "Edge Of Time" close to Circus Maximus, which makes a big impact with its heady chorus and orchestrated interlude.

The end of the disc celebrates an inspired Ghost Ship Octavius whose similarities with Finn Zierler's works, already audible from the beginning of the disc, an impression reinforced by the harshest passages of Fanion's vocals which finds intonations like Kelly Sundown Carpenter, are combined here with affinities with metal, also quite hybrid and with Evergrey's strong character. First of all, we hear Adõn Fanion show the full extent of his vocal abilities by using with more sobriety this vibrato a little too generous in the first part of the disc. Then, Ghost Ship Octavius displays all the sap of his progressive creativity (rock and metal) and unfailingly handles power and emotion ('Far Below') in a succession of racy and elegant compositions (including the sublime'The Maze') that require several listenings to capture all their subtleties.

In more ways than one, "Delirium" deserves the honors of a second album of very high quality in this marriage of progressive and power metal. The status of very promising talent has been acquired and the option of making it an essential reference will arise if in the future the group continues its trajectory on the same upward slope. - Official website

GHOST SHIP OCTAVIUS

DELIRIUM

MIGHTY MUSIC

PROGRESSIVE METAL