Australia’s Voyager have never shied away from their poppier sensibilities, so it’s no surprise that their sixth release, Ghost Mile, is plastered with more melody than you can shake an eight-string at. The melodic tech quintet’s earlier material veered towards either anthemic or proggy elements, but by the time 2014’s V rolled around, the band had finely tuned their ability to meld the two together into one glorious whole. As a result, Ghost Mile walks the line between richly textured polyrhythms, dextrous riffs and synth-led choruses like a funambulist on a high wire. Disconnected provides the album’s meatiest moment butLifeline offers up mindbending, fret-wrangling guitarwork with a blinding singalong moment and Ascension combines Periphery-esquedjent grooves with pristine atmospherics. Immediacy is Voyager’s bag and they do it well. Despite a lot going on, these tracks never feel cluttered. Rather, the title track and Misery Is Only Company sound expansive, and these dynamic, ephemeral riffs are like a jolt of colour splashed across white space.
Voyager - Ghost Mile album review
Perth’s tech-metal tunesmiths expand their palette
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