PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Ghost is the fourth and final part to the epic album collection by the extremely talented guitarist and vocalist Devin Townsend and while Ghost takes a mellower and elegantly surreal path to the music, you can’t help but think it is far better than the crunchy, alternative mish mash of sounds spawning forth from the likes of Ki, Addicted and Deconstruction. Ghost is the ideal album to kick back, put all your troubles behind you and relax to, and with Devin showing the angelic musician within him. You can lord and magnify over his excellent musicianship skills.
From start to finish of Ghost you feel as if you have left your body and are floating. It’s so peaceful and beautiful, meaning you can enjoy the fluffiness of songs like ‘Heart Baby’, ‘Monsoon’ and ‘Infinite Ocean’ whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whatever time it is. It’s simply lush and it only gets better and better the more it progresses (That’s if you haven’t nodded off to its feather like guitar lines and elegant wind pipe sections) It’s the delicacy and attention to detail that set’s this apart from previous Devin Townsend releases, making it a unique and different experience to long time Hevy Devy fans, showing that Mr Townsend’s skills as both a singer and a guitar player are still amazing without being extremely loud and heavy.
As well as having very ambient tracks on Ghost, we also see folk music elements creeping in, especially in the tracks ‘Blackberry’ and ‘Fly’. The acoustic guitar lines being quite jumpy at times and the nature sounding noises at the begging liven up the album for a bit, showing change and progression to the music, without disrupting the slow and peaceful flow of the rest of the album.
Aside from the music now…….. The booklet which you get with Ghost is something to behold as well. Usually the booklet that comes with an album includes photos of the band, the lyrics and a thanks page, but Ghost is somewhat different, in that it is a photo album jammed full of stunning landscape photos from all across the world. So, even if you aren’t keen of The Devin Townsend’s Project’s change in musical direction. This album is worth buying on the soul fact of the awesome photographs that are encased within the very magical looking Digipack.
Hopefully Mr Townsend has taken on board that his latest album Ghost is KILLER and despite the odd change in genre, he is actually sounding better than he ever has done before. Who know what’s next for Devin Townsend? Dubstep anybody? [8/10]
