Soulgazer

Denver’s death metal upstarts Astral Tomb land their debut this March with an album well tailored to fit Blood Harvest’s current roster of future minded metal. ‘Soulgazer’ is a bizarre reflecting pool of death metal’s oddly tangential recent history. Looking at their contribution to the ‘Chasm of Aeons’ split in 2020, Astral Tomb have apparently been inspired by the current trend for Timeghoul worship but couldn’t help but develop a voice of their own in the process. ‘Soulgazer’ looks like an attempt by Astral Tomb to write their own version of ‘Hidden History of the Human Race’, making this album a copy at least twice removed from the original source material.

But there’s something to the over-excited enthusiasm rampant across this album that makes it oddly compelling, it may be a twice removed copy of a copy, but that does not make it twice as bad by any measure. It should also be noted that Astral Tomb are revoltingly young. About the same age, in fact, that many of death metal’s old guard were when they started cranking out demos in the mid-1980s. And just like death metal’s old guard, Astral Tomb’s approach is an interesting concoction of imitation and brash disregard for agreed norms that makes youthful contributions to music scenes such a vital component of their longevity

Structurally and thematically there’s no getting away from the Blood Incantation comparison. Astral Tomb attempt to whip up a similar concoction of ‘Obscura’ style percussive riffing alongside clean breakdowns with off kilter arpeggios and soaring, spacey lead harmonies. Vocals are equally guttural and reverb drenched, working more as low-end sirens than an entity with rhythmic potential for the most part. The production is a little on the lo-fi side by modern death metal standards, but there’s still clarity and clout aplenty for listeners to sink their teeth into.

But where all these element in Blood Incantation were an uncanny postmodern phantasm – made all the more disingenuous by the fact they are humans and not in fact an AI – Astral Tomb sound like a band with blood (yep) coursing through their veins. Their riff style is already clearly defined, and can be mapped out across these five tracks with ease. They circle and repeat themes, ruminating on one simplistic idea by adding subtle variations with each repetition, layers, dissonance, stilts and starts in tempo.

Solos are also characterised by unadulterated enthusiasm, leaping from chaotic fretboard murder to novel harmonic shapes and curious rhythmic punches. The drums, although a little underserved by the rough and ready mix, excel at brief, mid-paced patterns that extend breakdowns beyond the remit of what good taste would usually allow. But this only furthers the image of a band young enough to care little for the dictates of convention, focused solely on stamping their mark on the world.

Disjointed, cluttered, circular, unfocused, sure all these things could be said about ‘Soulgazer’. But beneath this there is a new face of sci-fi themed death metal emerging to stand next to the likes of a Cryptic Shift, one that warrants some scrutiny in the years to come. Astral Tomb may have a long way to go in terms of finesse, but after album number one they have achieved far more than many older bands with decades of experience under their belts: they have a voice of their own and they are able to communicate this to an audience when it really counts. For that and that alone we should probably pay attention.

Originally published at Hate Meditations