Astral Tomb : "Soulgazer"

To me the term gore grind means sloppy death metal. These guys to not defy that logic, though they experiment more, yet make riffs more memorable to some extent. They sound like they are more into "Domination" era Morbid Angel than "Altars of Madness" which might be what sets them apart from other death metal bands. The fact that I reviewed a band that tried to merge free form jazz with metal before listening to this, plays into this band's favor as nothing they can do comes across as chaotic as what I heard before this album. The fact the opening track is almost 13 minutes long does not play to their favor as they have not really set the course for writing a song that warrants such length, they are more of a girth band.  The ambiance the band goes off into midway into the song seems like it should be two different songs rather than using this to just bridge a larger piece. When it comes back in the riff is slower and more staccato, it is a cool riff just not picking up where they left off before the space out part. 

The fact these guys are from Denver means they are likely smoking a ton of weed which is why they want to be more surreal and trippy than they actually are, though I do enjoy the dissonance they can bring to the table. The second track confirms this theory, but since it is just space noise for tripping, and not a song I am not going to factor it any further into this review. The creepy guitar melodies however work well for  "Inertia:. When they speed up and go into the more blasty Cannibal Corpse like parts they lose me, despite the fact I know this entire genre is spawned from Cannibal Corpse. The faster more thrashy riff works fine though.  They band has said themselves they are criticized most often for the lackluster production on their previous work, this is improved , but the less than air tight arrangement I think plays into the production flaws.  We are two minutes into "Traversing the Wandering Star" before it kicks in. When it does things are more sloppy in terms of the metal they hit you with. . I think the looser style of playing , makes the production sound more iffy than if this was a very air tight riffing. 

When they pull back from the chaos of the last song and chill out on a more melodic riff they have proved how intentional their mess can be. They also prove the weed is working. Despite being a death metal band I have more respect for where they take this song melodically than how brutal they are. Their guitar player shows what kind of promise he has .  I will give this album an 8.5, some of the flaws are more a snap shot of the genre as a whole that these youngsters are giving a shot at doing different.