Dancing With Darkness: GhostSeeker’s Divergence Is a Mirror to the Soul (Album Review)

By JUSTIN WATSON

Album Cover

GhostSeeker has risen from their debut EP, Initium Novum, to accentuate every human emotion in the melodic Divergence. The Australian band’s paired vocals of Celeste Bojczuk and Daniel Breen act as a conduit of self-refection, while Tim Campey, Cory Walkeden, and Daniel Gay provide the haunting atmospheric instrumentals. Divergence tends to question the actual listener with this album. What do you do with your “darkness?” Does it manifest into something greater or simply hold you down? Asking this question early helps pave the way to just how the message is received. Throughout each track, Bojczuk provides this message in an almost angelic logic to Breen’s fury, balancing both sides into metal symphony. This symmetry is what sets GhostSeeker apart from the rest of the pack. 

Divergence manages to pack a punch from start to finish, building up song to song while orchestrating the narrative. This statement does not deviate throughout, preventing distractions like exaggerated ideology and mixed messages. Instead, Divergence utilizes a psychological path to dial up intensity and a lingering darkness to encapsulate each track, leaving the audience wanting more. Tone is set early, with the album's first track “Internment.” This resonance is in the form of one’s personal hell or “Outright lies, ignored cries, our demise” and where it can lead to. The album further expands this notion in “Wake Up,” lyrically acknowledging everyday demons “It gets so crippling battling myself again,” while pinpointing the need of self-betterment “Purify your light to burn again.” The band’s fourth track “Metempsychoses,” is a turning point, morphing those inward feelings into a worldview, questioning the hierarchy of life and the decisions that are made for us. 

Divergence then turns the key with “Cursed Till The End” and “Glow in Decay” and questions how one will shape themselves through these emotional trials of life. “Dissension” further queries life’s path while questioning existence “has light lost me again?” The final track “The prototype” contemporarily captures the essence of ignorance and the power it plays within our daily lives. Furthermore, it questions; do we just accept our cards or rise and “blindly fight the fate we chose?” Or, should knowledge be sought out in defense of your soul? Again, Divergence questions the listener and what is done with their perpetual darkness. This relatable, yet scary lyrical accomplishment can be received on multiple levels of consciousness. Use it as a tool of acceptance? A roadmap of life’s emotional rollercoaster? Both, it’s a reality check. GhostSeeker has shown through on Divergence.

Stream "Divergence" by GhostSeker on SPOTIFY

Originally Posted on DEATH BY MUSIC