Label: Insideout Music
Release date: June 20, 2011
Production: Devin Townsend
Album length: 72.45 min
Genre: Ambient Music/Progressive Metal
Rating: 9.5/10
“Ghost” was the second of two studio albums that Devin Townsend released on the same day under his solo project, true to his bipolar musical nature. It was the complete musical and atmospheric opposite of the irritable, noisy, avant-garde, chaotic and experimental “Deconstruction” (RockLine review), because here Devin wandered, totally out of the blue, into the territory of ambient music and progressive rock with some post-rock and folk-rock touches. That move won him quite a few new followers who had never been exposed to his usual prog-metal and prog-rock projects.
“Ghost” is a deeply meditative, ambient-beautiful and serene album that reflects Devin’s gentler, “enlightened” side, which he doesn’t show off all that often. Singer Katrina Natale was a big help to Devin in building the vocal harmonies, and she takes over the lead vocal baton on “Ghost” quite a few times. Among Devin’s old buddies, keyboardist Dave Young played a major role on the record, contributing an enviable number of mighty ambient arrangements, while Devin himself was key to building the “wall of sound” with his production, guitar and vocal skills.
All the compositions flow into one another harmoniously and make for a wonderful ambient journey. The opener “Fly” builds a serene mood on dreamy keyboard curtains and ethereal vocal harmonies. “Heart Baby” takes the listener out onto somewhat more melancholic ambient plains, with occasional acoustic-guitar arrangements and gorgeous male-female vocal harmonies. “Feather”, with its epic ambient nature, vocal harmonies and rippling keyboard curtains, is one of the highlights of “Ghost” and the moment where Devin’s ethereal singing reaches its best possible expression.
“Kawaii”, the Japanese word for cuteness, is an ambiently fragile and airy piece with wide-open synth curtains and effects, where lovely vocal harmonies quickly take over the central role. The title track, with massive walls of sound and ethereal vocal harmonies reigning in the middle, is stuffed with positive vibes. This creation sounds like an almost ideal cross between post-rock, folk and ambient music. “Blackberry” has elements of country and is a sort of prototype for what Devin showed off a few years later with his side project Casaulties of Cool.
On the new age instrumental “Monsoon”, which sounds like an ambient trip through Southeast Asia, the listener can bask in rippling keyboard curtains and gentle flute sounds courtesy of Kat Apple. “Dark Matters”, which forges a harmonious union of wall of sound, wind arrangements and ethereal vocal feats, is soaked in a nostalgic mood. “Texada”, named after a large island in British Columbia (Canada), is another extremely intense ambient creation with regal male-female vocal harmonies, ethereal sound curtains and lovely acoustic arrangements.
“Seams” is a tender ambient requiem that sways between a mysterious and a melancholic mood. The ambiently super-relaxing “Infinite Ocean”, which also has touches of art rock and psychedelia, can likewise be counted among the most intense moments of this album. “As You Were”, a true incarnation of relaxation music, is an extremely fitting close to an epic ambient journey through different lands and states of mind.
“Ghost” was originally supposed to come out as a double album, but Devin changed his mind later. He soon dropped the idea of releasing the unused tracks as “Ghost 2” too, having realized that their punchier, darker and more melancholic nature meant they weren’t a proper follow-up to its predecessor. Still, some of those tracks later came out on the bonus disc of the debut from Devin’s side project Casaulties of Cool.
With the ambient adventure “Ghost”, Devin once again showed off his remarkable breadth as a songwriter and his openness to different musical genres, and proved that he’s capable of creating ambient music of real depth. Devin couldn’t have made an album more different from “Deconstruction” if he’d tried. He properly confused his traditional metal fans, who hadn’t expected this from him, though most of them still welcomed “Ghost” warmly, and so did everyone who pictures him merely as some kind of uncontrollably “wacky”, eccentric and rowdy professor of experimental rock and metal.
Author: Peter “Dr. ProgRock” Podbrežnik
We’re publishing this album review on Devin Townsend’s 49th birthday, and we wish him many more wonderfully crazy musical ideas and endless creative inspiration.
Track list:
1. Fly (4:15)
2. Heart Baby (5:55)
3. Feather (11:30)
4. Kawaii (2:52)
5. Ghost (6:24)
6. Blackberry (4:53)
7. Monsoon (4:37)
8. Dark Matters (1:57)
9. Texada (9:30)
10. Seams (4:04)
11. Infinite Ocean (8:01)
12. As You Were (8:47)
Lineup:
Katrina Natale – vocals
Devin Townsend – guitar, bass guitar, vocals, synthesizers, banjo
Dave Young – keyboards, Nord synthesizer, harmonium, mandolin, computer ‘software’ (Ableton Live)
Kat Epple – flute, woodwinds
Mike St. Jean – drums, percussion
