The opener, the initial third of the album’s total length, then merges into a four-and-a-half ambient instrumental titled “Be Here Now…” which isn’t entirely disposable, but ends up being around 60% overlong as well. Shrock’s vocals are the expected cookie monster grunts and gurgles, peppered with some reverb, functional but nothing special either. The drums are constantly doing fills and accents while maintaining its monotonic tempo, while the simple riffs change marginally in sound here and there, but none are particularly impactful. However, the constant (d)evolution of the track doesn’t allow any good moment to linger too much. A minute later, then comes a more interesting section with solid tremolo melodies, which kind of reclaims some of the quality the intro of the composition manifested. That section starts to… melt away, as more chaotic soloing ensues around the 7:40 mark, as the greyish death metal returns.

Around the 6:20 mark an echoing chanted intermezzo starts within the song, providing some welcomed respite from the monotony. Some chaotic guitar solos appear later, but after the 2-minute mark the song enters total-plodding mode. The first minute is among its most satisfying, with some mid-speed blastbeats and a fulfilling crunchy tone for the guitars. Humongous opener “Transcendental Visions” is a rather tedious near 13-minute exercise in mid to slow-paced death metal, with dull riffs repeated too many goddamned times. Soulgazer is more like potential gazing into the what could one day be, but it remains a distant galaxy away at the present moment. The musicianship is solid, and though they have some interesting ideas, they’re still a long way from developing good songwriting skills. The thing is, he’s not there yet, and neither are his bandmates. I foresee great potential if he carries on with his musical career in the coming years. Sure, these guys are quite young still, with frontman Michael Schrock just a few months past his 19th birthday. However, I must admit I was disappointed by the band’s debuting LP, even though I wasn’t expecting the second coming of Blood Incantation (themselves being the second coming of The Chasm), but certainly not something as far apart in terms of quality and personality as I encountered here. Even though that specific thematic niche has grown these past years amidst other satellite aesthetics within the realm of death metal, it still comprises a limited array of bands. Astral Tomb presents itself as a proggy space-themed death metal outfit, so naturally, I had to check them out.

Soul gazer