Theocracy (Official Thread)

[TACdtf]

Nice! Just seeing this post now. Yes, this is a great album. So much musical goodness in this band.

 

[Magic]

Ghost Ship, the fourth album by Theocracy released in 2016 and the band is still a 5 piece band. I saw the album cover first, and was anticipating the possibility of some darker song writing, but that is the farthest thing from the actual music.

Ghost Ship is different from the previous albums in several ways; first, there are 9 songs that follow a shorter song length, most coming in at just over 4 minutes, and one song that has the signature progressive metal long length. Second, Ghost Ship has at least 2 songs that sit firmly into the hard rock genre. This is a new element for Theocracy. The remainder of the album is a continuation of melodic power metal, sprinkled with progressive touches and spiced with thrashy elements.

The album opens with a very upbeat, melodic, catchy, power metal ripper in ‘Paper Tiger’. Next comes my top pick, the title track, ‘Ghost Ship’.

The chugging, galloping, gnarly riffs, are spiced up with shredding & dueling guitars, double thumping percussive blasts, and the vocals just mesh to perfection.

The album rolls on with more of what you would expect from Theocracy. However, I have noticed a slight change with Matt’s vocals, they are toned down a bit. I also noticed the songs taking on a more melodic progressive metal flare, then twisting right back to some pounding power, which was noted in ‘Wishing Well’.

Going forward is ‘Around the World and Back’ that would make hard rock fans take notice, but made me think “hello, where did you come from?”. Strange song, with a weird flow to the album, for sure.

My next pick is a ballad-like song, ‘Currency in a Bankrupt World’. Not a full on ballad, but close. More pop metal than anything, but definitely drifts into the hard rock genre, again. Matt’s vocals on this song remind me of Tobias Sammet in Edguy.

The album closer, ‘Easter’, is the most progressive and longest song on the album. Many twists and turns, time changes, and even reminds me in some passages of some pirates on the sea, then twists again to something soft and tender. Not my pick but a beautiful song, nonetheless.

Overall, Ghost Ship, is a good album. I got lost at times because the album flow from song to song is not that smooth. I also found that I was easily distracted, but that is me when I am not that impressed.

My rating..8/10