Almagest

It may seem bizarre, but from the moment I clutched onto Almagest’s music through my spindly metallic tendrils, I was always of the assumption that what I had discovered was some cult-ish release from the late 1990’s, forgotten by time and left to gather dust.

Whether this belief was prompted by the faded, Teutonic logo, the simplistic artwork, or simply by way of the fact that the music is so apart from all the current thrusts in extreme metal, I am not sure. The discovery that this musical cavalcade of melody and drama is actually a relatively new release simultaneously shocked me and filled me with wistful joy that I may yet hear more Almagest, as this release is beguiling to me in many ways.

As we have just two actual tracks to wrestle with here (the opener, “- “ and the closer “+” being sample heavy ambient pieces) , the review may be necessarily short, but I will attempt to stretch the ample enjoyment I extracted from this release across enough words to render this exercise non-trivial.

After the swelling, space-age ramblings of the intro piece, we are introduced to the bulk of Almagest’s sound in the track “En Void.” Spacey, reverb heavy chords herald the plodding, mournful melodies that make up the backbone of the song. Drowning in delay, and with soft, ethereal keyboards floating just on the edge of perception, Almagest really perfect the floating, dreamscape sound that so many American black metal bands toy with unsuccessfully.

Even when the speed picks up, such serene and solemn undercurrents are not lost. Blastbeats abound on the track “Syntaxis Ecliptica”, with unchanging growls rumbling away distantly, but in all the aggression, there remains a sense of vastness, without turning to overt or tacky consonance. The sensation is almost akin to a memory foam mattress for my ears.

However, without a doubt, the most stellar attribute Almagest bring to the table on this release are the soaring guitar solos. Poignant and tasteful, the lead work will make you feel like a 14 year old, hearing the electric guitar for the first time. Blending Mithras-esque space tripping with solos that would not sound out of place on a Boston record lends the release a kind of quirky, ancient dad-rock charm, and it happens to be a charm so unique that I can do nothing but adore it.

There is very little to pick apart here. I suppose that the ambient pieces are somewhat superfluous, but neither are outwardly offensive. My only real complaint here is that there is not more of this release to listen to. An excellent disc.