Stargazer

***REPRESSED!!!! 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. 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. Edition of 250 copies on yellow/gold marble vinyl housed in gatefold jackets with poster.