Demo 2007

Astral Luminous is an American solo project playing some kind of repetitive post-black metal with elements of ambient and noise. The (fantastic) artwork alone is a strong hint at the style. I enjoy the LP and yet, somehow, this little demo - with only one metal song and an ambient outro - shines brighter than its successor.

"Transcendence" is an early version of the song "Astral Luminous" from the album of the same name. Basically, it was re-written and slowed down some, with a few new bits and bites that ultimately result in a 13 minute re-recording of the song found on here. While "Astral Luminous" is indeed a great track, to me it feels unnecessarily padded out, right from the start. "Transcendence", however, uses a fade-in effect and has a dirtier, darker lead guitar tone. It simply catches the ear quicker than the 1+ minute rhythmic intro that brings in this same lead section in the 13-minute version. The 'verse' - I suppose that's what I'd call the slow section anyway - benefits from a couple things the counterpart lacks - it's brought in by a reverbed-up 'clean' picking section, and it uses this clean riffing along with a distorted backdrop as the counterpart to the slow drums (opposed to a sleeker sound). There's also a lot less use of vocals on this one, a factor that really fits the ambient black metal style. In simplest terms, less is more when it comes to this song. Near-perfect songwriting on this one, in my opinion.

"Past Remembrance" is a simple, minimalist keyboard piece. The entire song is comprised of two keyboard recordings laid over each other - one performed as a clean, sparse grand piano-style melody and the other is a more 'extravagant' symphonic backdrop. There's also some kind of droning percussive sound in the background throughout the duration, but it's pretty unobtrusive. Cool track, not mind-blowing.

So, what you get here is a shorter, supremely well put-together version of the stand-out track from the debut LP, and a pretty keyboard outro. It's minimalist, melodic, dark and just heavy enough. If you liked the LP but thought the taste was a bit off, try this instead. If you simply want to hear some catchy ambient black metal, this is a good quick shot of it. Highly recommended.