Imaginary War
Replacing the Ghosts

The story of Imaginary War starts with one man, a man named Joki Schaller. He was a man shaken by demons, demons he decided to combat in an imaginary war with the only means of warfare he knew, music. He assembled a small team of mercenaries with a guitar player, a drummer and a musical anarchist with the love of the synthetics of music, Joki himeself as a general he took upon himself the duties of the commanding officer which of course was the voice. This quartet the started their war and now they are starting to see results meaning that the ghosts are being replaced, I suppose that means that the enemy is changing or something like that. The German quartet is said to be walking a tightrope between ultimate downfall and final relief, whatever that means. They do tell their story in twelve chapters that will take you around 52 minutes to take in.

We are talking synthpop when we are talking genre, with a hint of bigger rock music sounds due to the guitars and the drums where the latter are said to be played live to give the songs a rough foundation. I would say that the synths sounds like the driving force in the songs but the guitars and drums keeps it honest and adds another dimension not much heard in the genre. I think you can compare them to Norwegian greats a-ha or even countrymen of De/Vision whom I reviewed in 2010, their sound is quite similar maybe with the rock touches of these warriors removed. The tempo is quite high and often very catchy making these songs very radio friendly and probably very easy to fall for, but they do break it off with pauses and calmer parts creating a more dynamic story of living on the edge but always saving the neck in the end. The sound is excellent by the way.

I must say that the press info for this album was one of the most brilliant so far, with talks of demons, walking the tightrope between downfall and relief, stories that venture towards the darker sides of life and living on the edge always saving the neck in the end. And with the info on who is in the band and the songs, and good info overall along with a text that is about as interesting as this album which is a lot interesting. It is songs to sing along with and songs that border on the greatness of a-ha in their prime and that my friends (or foes) is quite impressive. With catchiness and songs you want to sing along with added with good dynamic sound you cannot really complain about this album, it does not get boring or loose your interest and neither is there any songs that you find poor. It is a very solid debut album, that’s for sure.

It starts by firing a musical missile straight into you consciousness where all the synapses run for shelter throwing themselves behind thoughts and worries to protect themselves from the blast which makes the mind go blank and just listen to the song called The Tide has Turned. An excellent starting statement that actually holds up the rest of the album, no other part is as good but all parts are fairly close to that which is an impressive thing. It is a battle that the album wins over my mind’s willingness to think elsewhere which most of the time happens when I listen to albums as most are not better than average, this one however is.

Do you like ending up in a comic book (or magazine)? then this might be right up your alley. Sure no one is being tossed into the garbage and such but the tide has turned since then and maybe it is time for a replacement of those synthpoppy ghosts you have lingering in your mind. It might be time for an imaginary war plain and simple, don’t miss it.

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