Style: Progressive metal, djent (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Jinjer, Tesseract, new Haken, Seven Spires
Country: Chile
Release date: 27 September 2024
My old phone had a bunch of problems: the battery had to be replaced, I dropped it and cracked the screen so badly it had to have a new front, the charger port shorted out and had to be replaced in its totality, and on another occasion I dropped it and broke the camera which also had to be replaced. I started to call my phone ‘The Ship of Theseus’ in reference to the old philosophical conundrum: if Theseus kept taking his boat out on adventures and kept having repairs and replacements done at dock and a time came when none of the original parts remained, could it still be called the same boat?
Delta haven’t yet fully Ship of Theseus’d, but keyboardist Nicolás Quinteros is the only member to have been with the group since their founding in Chile in 2003. Gemini is the group’s seventh outing, and the second album to feature latest vocalist Paula Loza. With a new guitarist, Victor Quezada, in tow, and longtime mainstays Marcos Sánchez (bass) and Andrés Rojas (drums) making up the rhythm section, Delta are a band who have existed in many guises, with a range of experience. Does a history of repairs and replacements add up to a tightened unit or a clattering wreck?
Delta’s foundational style is the bombast of modern trad prog with that anthemic, djenty gloss—thick riffs and clamorous synth solos—coupled with something more melodic and reigned in, suffusing synthwave influences, melodic piano and more vulnerable vocal performances. Loza’s powerful delivery is key to Delta’s success, “The Tower” providing a great showcase of her skills, from ominous half-whispered vocals, belting hooks, and aggressive growls. Loza joined on 2021’s Fears, a strong album and my introduction to the band, but one which opted more for speed and aggression. Loza’s vocals have become even stronger somehow, and the entire band’s songwriting approach has matured into something more progressive and considered; grandiose in its atmospheres yet willing to show restraint in order to get the most out of the climaxes and crescendos.
While fundamentally a band firmly rooted in the progressive metal and djent sphere, building on the tradition of such disparate groups as Haken, Jinjer and Tesseract, Delta avoid becoming hemmed in by stylistic tropes. The strong emphasis on interactions between synth and lead guitar remind me of Frost*, symphonic flourishes here and there nod to the influence of groups like Seven Spires and Unleash the Archers, while the combination of major key soloing, a belting vocalist, and hook-forward writing frequently takes me back to my Alter Bridge days. There are even some vocal performances befitting the realms of nu metal, as on “At Last” and “The Great Dilemma”. Delta manage to distil a lot of different subgenre influences successfully, blending them into a contiguous whole that manages to be a distinct and unabashedly progressive sound in its own right.
Take “At Last” by way of example, a track built on a simple yet massive synth hook from the annals of power metal but which also features a nu metal section, staccato djent with thrumming bass, and intricate progressive riffing in the climactic outro. In lesser hands, such genre hopping would feel like whiplash, but as much as “At Last” frequently surprises, it never feels like a succession of bits; the whole track flows and every section sits logically within the composition. Gemini consistently pull off this trick: “The Tower” has forays into metalcore, “Gemini” and “Cosmic Reverie” contain synths that are positively 80s in their waveyness, and “The Humanest” leans rather magnificently into full-blown opera. Closing duo “Cosmic Reverie” and “Cosmic Voyager” comprise Gemini’s two-part finale, an instrumental spectacle suffused with rock opera grandiosity and spacey intrigue that allows the members to stretch out, not that they weren’t already doing that. It’s a gamble to exclude Loza from the final ten minutes of the album, but she’s already more than earned her keep, and the instrumental bestows a conclusive overture/ending credits quality which proves enjoyable.
I could list a ton more standout moments (the solo section in “So Wrong!” with that funky bass work underneath deserves mention as does the softer character of “To Find the End” which sees Loza and Quinteros interplay beautifully), but what makes Gemini work is a fantastic mix: the bass thunders metallically with barely any distortion, thrumming as a perfect tonal counterpoint to the distorted guitar work; the synth glimmers and Loza, of course, sounds fantastic—every element is fantastically cared for, every build up feels earned. Indeed, everything about Gemini sounds great, which makes it all the more surprising to have to say that some of those belting anthemic choruses and introductory riffs start to blend into one by the album’s latter stretches—you can sing-along in the moment but when you have so many earworms cut from the same cloth, it’s hard for any single one to stick in your head. It’s a bizarre problem to have because ninety percent of the time Delta are creative dynamos, deftly weaving subgenre influences and cohering as an admirably tight unit, and yet the hooks holding all this together become the least engaging part of their sound.
Nevertheless, Gemini showcases a group who’ve found exactly the right performers to get the best out of their sound, a single unit focused on laser tight compositions, massive atmospheres, and virtuosic performances; this incarnation of the band might be dramatically different from their original form, but they’re so much more for all those changes. Delta having found the wind in their sails, a bold captain, a billowing mizzen, a— [drops phone on the floor].
Recommended tracks: At Last, So Wrong!, The Humanest
You may also like: Scardust, Temic, The Stranger
Final verdict: 8/10
Related links: Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Metal-Archives page
Label: Iged Records – Facebook | Official Website
Delta is:
– Nicolás Quinteros (keyboards)
– Paula Loza (vocals)
– Victor Quezada (guitars)
– Marcos Sánchez (bass)
– Andrés Rojas (drums)
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