StarGazer CD Represses Out Now

StarGazer “Psychic Secretions” CD
ANTI-GOTH 539

-Second pressing of 500 copies.
-Vinyl repress should be back later this year.

After 25 years of activity, StarGazer has firmly established itself as one of the most enduring Black/Death bands in the Australian extreme metal scene. And although they have remained continuously productive during the last quarter-century, their output is sparse, owing to the band’s meticulous approach to writing and recording. Consequently, the release of every StarGazer album is a momentous event. Recorded during the early stages of the Great Reset, “Psychic Secretions” is just the fourth full-length album in the StarGazer catalog and comes six years after their last album, the brilliant “A Merging to the Boundless.” As guitarist and vocalist The Serpent Inquisitor explains, with every album, StarGazer tries “to produce something forward thinking without breaking our traditional sound too much, or treading on our own toes.” Indeed, it is difficult, if not impossible, to identify a band with a more diverse, yet consistently impressive catalog. On this album, StarGazer embraces the more aggressive aspects of its sound, harkening back, in a sense, to the band’s earlier era. But instead of the raw, bestial attack that characterized its earliest work, “Psychic Secretions” is refined and chiseled to perfection. The so-called “progressive” or “avant garde” elements that the band has folded into its sound over the years are on full display, even as the overall intensity of the songs is amplified. With the exception of the poignant lament in the first half of the monumental album-closer, “Pilgram Age,” the album is primarily forceful and direct. The astonishing fretless bass work by The Great Righteous Destroyer is of particular significance. Undistorted and pushed to the forefront of the mix, it is a gilded filigree threaded through the songs. The album’s composition is characteristically confounding, featuring reckless temporal shifts, idiosyncratic melodies, and the unpredictable fusion of wildly disparate riffs, all to astounding effect. “Psychic Secretions” is arguably the most fully realized StarGazer album to date, a sublime synthesis of the band’s strengths. The performances are precise and tightly wound, yet the songs themselves evolve in serpentine dimensions, blurred and warped in a masterful display of some of the most spectacular songwriting in metal. The abstruse themes and compositional intricacy of StarGazer’s koanlike music are such that the album demands repeated, concentrated listens before it can be adequately deciphered, and even then, it remains mystifying and obscure.

StarGazer “A Merging to the Boundless” CD
ANTI-GOTH 276

-Second pressing of 500 copies.
-Vinyl repress should be back later this year.

(Description by J. Campbell)
Although the members of StarGazer are among the most active musicians in the Australian underground metal scene, they only infrequently release music under the StarGazer banner. Because of the band’s meticulous approach to every aspect of the music, when they do finally put out new material, there is little doubt as to the degree of quality one can expect. For these reasons, the announcement earlier this year that a new StarGazer album was on the horizon has generated a massive amount of anticipation, and with the release of “A Merging to the Boundless,” expectations will not only be met, but exceeded. Despite approaching the 20-year mark of StarGazer’s existence, “A Merging to the Boundless” is only the band’s third full-length album. Each of the band’s releases demonstrates continual growth and evolution, while maintaining the core traits that characterize all of StarGazer’s music. With this album, as with the previous one, “A Great Work of Ages,” the band continues to shed old skins, revealing new, variegated forms and patterns beneath. In reference to StarGazer one often hears terms like “Progressive Death Metal.” While the band is undeniably technical and almost certainly influenced by myriad styles of music that are subtly incorporated into the tapestry of their sound, the term “progressive” often carries with it a somewhat negative connotation, suggesting either the sterile, academic approach of Progressive Rock or a naïve attempt to be “experimental.” StarGazer deftly avoid both of these pitfalls. While nearly peerless in terms of their technical proficiency and their reliance upon unpredictable arrangements, StarGazer never allow their dedication to craft to be infected by hollow displays of musical prowess. The new album opens with the title track, featuring frenetic, labyrinthine riffs stitched together seamlessly across disparate keys and tempos. While the disorienting fury of the title track may harken back to the more decidedly Black/Death style of band’s earlier recordings, the album shifts abruptly with the somber intro to “An Earth Rides its Endless Carousel” – one of the several standout tracks on the album. Beginning with a lush instrumental passage adorned with shimmering, clean guitars and sweeping bass arpeggios, the song gradually gains momentum before eventually erupting. The track, like the album as a whole, shifts and moves, waxes and wanes, in a thoroughly organic manner, never feeling choppy or forced. The album continues to unfold, revealing new dimensions – passages of fractured pandemonium give way to tranquil vistas that disappear again like mirages into the chaotic aether. As with the band’s music, StarGazer’s lyrics also transcend boundaries. Conceptually elusive, but deeply evocative, the lyrical content bespeaks an arcane knowledge and mystical bent while conveying a rich poetic sensibility: “That blazing sun under my lids, behind my teeth, lay dead on the precipice of the abyss.” The album closes with “The Grand Equalizer,” which, at approximately 11 minutes, is the longest track in StarGazer’s catalog. It is a fitting culmination to the album – hallucinatory at times, punctuated with majestic riffs laden with densely interwoven melodies. As the song ends, and with it the album, the listener is left wandering at the edge of the void. “A Merging to the Boundless” is nothing short of a masterpiece and arguably the most profound and articulate statement StarGazer has made.

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