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by Sebastian Kluth

The Crowns Smoothly Fit upon Their Creative Heads - A Review of Delta's Gemini

The Crowns Smoothly Fit upon Their Creative Heads - A Review of Delta's Gemini

Delta is a creative progressive metal band from Chile and Argentina that has gone through quite a few line-up changes in its illustrious career. When Navigator's lead singer Paula Loza joined the band, Delta has truly struck gold. She is charismatic, energetic and an excellent entertainer as can be witnessed on the great live record Live in Fear. Paula Loza is a welcome alternative to the high number of operatic vocalists with her grounded approach that wouldn't sound out of place on a contemporary Linkin Park record and I most certainly mean this as a compliment.

Gemini is the group's seventh full length effort and it kicks off with a massive bang. Title track "Gemini" is imaginative, quirky and surprising and for an instant, I was wondering whether I had accidentally clicked onto the new record by Japanese metalcore group Nemophila instead. This opener is vividly on the pulse of time, takes no prisoners and most certainly sounds like a track only very few progressive metal bands could even dare to perform. Symphony X has tried on its entire last studio record to sound this aggressive, fresh and innovative but this particular song here is better than any of the eleven tunes on Underworld.

Another song that oozes with relentless energy is rebellious "So Wrong!" that is this release's perfect single candidate. The powerful guitar riffs, pumping bass guitar play, technically skilled drumming and clever use of atmospheric keyboard patterns are the backbone for an unchained vocal performance that obviously comes straight from the heart. The lyrics find a perfect balance between English and Spanish passages, thus aiming for international success while also honouring the band members' origins. It's a mystery to me why this excellent band isn't more popular in the here and now.

The progressive metal quintet also proves that it can offer calm, introspective and soothing material and the highlights in this category are the two connected closing tracks "Cosmic Reverie" and "Cosmic Voyager". The former sounds like an instrumental space rock song from the seventies somewhere between Gentle Giant, Pink Floyd and Tangerine Dream that should particularly appeal to an audience that has grown up back in those beautiful days. The latter tune extends this instrumental ride to a fulfilling length of nine and a half minutes and splendidly combines quiet passages with a few louder outbursts before coming to an appeasing end. The fact that this instrumental duology has been dedicated to a very special person will make these closing tunes even more profound and might touch even neutral listeners even more than any song with lyrics on this outstanding output.

Here it is, one of last year's strongest progressive metal outputs that smoothly manages to combine traces of progressive rock and space rock of the seventies with inspirations from djent and metalcore of the twenties of this century. The quintet's soundscapes are filled with magnificent surprises and the singer is one of the very best in rock and metal music in this day and age. Delta's Gemini is filled with so much creativity that you should listen to it time and time again to let it grow upon you as time goes by. Any progressive rock or progressive metal fan should purchase this release on Bandcamp and support this unfairly underrated band from Chile and Argentina.

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