Blackgaze, Post black metal, hipster black, or whatever you’re going to call it became one of the most prominent metal genres during the last ten or so years. It all started with Alcest and their “fairy metal” philosophy, and came a long way, only to convert to almost mainstream works of Deafheaven which showed extreme music could indeed be heard by the masses, relatively speaking. And just when you though the genre can’t bring anything new, Astronoid appeared with their debut, Air.
Astronoid play an incredibly upbeat variant of blackgaze, coated with thrash riffs, power metal solos and immensely joyful vocals; they play their thing, labeled as dream thrash. Songs are fast paced; vocals are similar to the style found on Tesseract’s Altered State, or Cynic’s Carbon-Based Anatomy. Music is in the veins of Amesoeurs, Deafheaven; along with before mentioned thrash influences, and spiced up with occasional power metal guitar work. Melodies are masterfully constructed, and it all unifies into one extremely positive listening experience; imagine the atmosphere of Lantlôs’s Melting Sun stripped out of all melancholic elements. It really is something else, combining many influences into one cohesive package thriving with quality.
And that’s what creativity is all about; pick up the best things from multiple sources and combine them into something new, different, familiar but unique at the same time. Air is a distinctive work worthy of the level of praise it gets from the metal world. It contains the best parts of many domains, melted into one interrelated envelope. Just listen to Up and Atom, or Tin Foil Hats, their bigger than life choruses, bombastic melodies, and pounding drums.
Other songs also are immensely jaunty, lifting the listener to the sky, giving him a dose of positive energy, not often found in the similar works of other bands. Air is just transcendently innovative record; words can only get you so far, and with albums like this one, this statement holds more strength than ever; just listen to it and bathe in its light. You’ll find occasional breaks, even traces of melancholic melodies, but soon the sound will be lifted up again, soaring through the mind like a drug. Astronoid showed us that a genre usually connected to the darker side of the human spirit can sound like if it came out from Eden; Couple that with top notch musicianship and you’ll get one hell of a record. I just hope guys from Astronoid will get the attention they deserve; metal is in need of them because Air is, along Zeal and Ardor’s Devil Is Fine, the most innovative record of 2016, and by far the most positive one.
