Label: Progrock.com Essentials
Release date: March 7, 2025
Production: Bob Cooper
Album length: 57:36 min
Genre: Progressive Rock
Rating: 9.5/10
Ghost of the Machine are a progressive rock quartet from Leeds, England. Well, technically a sextet, made up of former members of This Winter Machine (hence the twist on the name of the new outfit) plus vocalist Charlie Bramald.
So this is a band with a seriously experienced lineup, musicians from the generation of British players who grew up hugely inspired by the look and sound of prog legends Genesis, Camel and Yes. The group won over music critics and fans of neo-prog, a style that’s very much a British Isles specialty, right from their 2022 debut “Scissorgames”, which racked up plenty of praise and glowing “prog rock album of the year” labels from the critics.
Expectations for the band’s second studio album were understandably sky-high, and the group has made it to its release with an unchanged lineup, which is definitely worth a round of applause. What sets Ghost of the Machine apart is the use of two guitars, so the phrasing in the arrangements is emphasized and, compared to their generational peers, definitely pushes a bit more to the front. There are only six compositions, three of which are serpentine, ever-shifting epic prog symphonies that run well over ten minutes. Ghost of the Machine are also textbook British masters of hypnotic, mystical evocation and gripping atmosphere, riding between proper pomp and drama theater, melancholy, longing, and the odd shining ray of optimism that now and then breaks through the album’s heavily mystical mood.
The sextet is known for outstanding creative chemistry among its members, and that’s the foundation of a brilliantly structured album like their latest, “Empires Must Fall”. Anyone who’s kept up with what the neo-prog phenomenon has been recording after, let’s say, a ’round’ five decades of existence in this galaxy knows exactly what this review essay is talking about. Bands like Gallahad, Pendragon, Jadis, good old Pallas and so on. The nature of the compositions rides that brilliant dividing line between catchy listenability and complex structure. Ghost of the Machine never fall into hard-to-digest inserts that would carry them off into the waters of some RIO/avant-garde provocateurs; instead, they always follow the red thread of compositional compactness. Even in the long esoteric passages, where lavish backdrops of rustling keyboards and guitar phrases blend superbly in a perfectly compatible, harmonious dialogue, everything works exactly where it should. Charlie Bramald’s vocals are, in tone and approach, a superb complement to the Ghost of the Machine story. There’s the album’s shortest track, The One, which could easily get airplay on the radio thanks to its remarkable compactness and musical catchiness, and it’s right there that Bramald’s vocal performance shines with special intensity, helped by his strikingly beautiful timbre. That’s confirmed by the melancholic opening section of the closer, After The War, where his voice paired with the piano will straight-up break your heart.
It’s hard to pick highlights. It’s a production masterpiece, with a cleverly weighted placement of the building blocks of the sonic picture, which gives the record a truly lavish sound. This is an album that thrills as a whole, in one piece. Front to back. Seamless. There’s no other way to play it. And as such, it works flawlessly. I could even say impeccably. After “Scissorgames”, “Empires Must Fall” is more than a thrilling successor to a brilliant predecessor, one way or another, which meant the band faced a big challenge of artistic step-up while the new material was coming together. And in every respect, they justified the debut’s top-tier artistic nature.
“Empires Must Fall” is, in short, a fantastic new release that will delight even the most demanding, let’s call them ‘spoiled’, fans of neo-prog, the kind who don’t miss a single novelty in this corner of the genre. From Marillion and IQ to Arena, and everything in between. We’re already waiting impatiently to see what the third Ghost of the Machine album will bring.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Keepers Of The Light (8:35)
2. The Days That Never Were (5:59)
3. Panopticon (11:44)
4. Fall Through Time (12:00)
5. The One (4:43)
6. After The War (14:32)
Lineup:
Charlie Bramald – vocals
Graham Garbett – guitars, backing vocals
Scott Owens – guitars
Mark Hagan – keyboards, piano
Stuart McAuley – bass guitars, pedals
Andy Milner – drums
