Kardashev – Alunea Review

One thing I realized with the forty years listening to Metal music is that it is always reinventing itself in the most admirable ways. The Metal music one listens to now is pretty different from the Metal music I started with, and, it is different from the Metal music bands as Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, for instance, began. More notably, other differences aside, vocals changed a lot. That’s exacty what my dear children of thenight will find in here with Kardashev “Alunea,” an album of vocals, if I am allowed to say that. I counted at least four different kinds of vocals here in a myriad of voices. Besides vocals, “Alunea” bounces into many different subgenres among Metal music so easily that I got stranged.

“Alunea” commences with “A Precipice. A Door.,” the track that presents to the fan the myriad of vocals Kardashev perform. It also presents a little the instrumental bounces the band does in the album. As I said before, it is astonishing the way they bounce from one Metal subgenre to the other so easily and naturally. Ok, it bothers me a little the hints of Modern Metal here and there, but that’s the way it is. I am kind of getting used to it. Even though “Reunion“ commences a little more melodic, the intensity of it overwhelms the fan with powerful vocals and instrumentals. It’s with “Reunion“ that the vocal myriad reaches its peak, and, I guess Kardashev‘s instrumental performance as well with some touches of Prog Metal and some Modern Metal. It’s an intense, very intense of a track. There on more Prog Metal and Prog Rock features were being added to the band’s métier making its music even more intense. I will not say “Alunea” is an experimental album because I don’t know their previous albums, but it certainly feels this way especially when it comes to vocals. With “Speak Silence” my dear child of the night might recognize three kinds of harsh vocals sometimes all together. The album is so diverse that if my dear child of the night is listening to “Edge of Forever” by any platform heshe might think the platform changed the album.

To some extent, it is possible to say, “Alunea” is some kind of weird opera due to the experiences with vocals. It is one more proof of the musical richness of Metal music even though the Modern metal hints here and there as in “Truth to Form” where vocals get very near the Modern Metal kind. They bothered me a little, but they are not enough to make me pull up the album away. Not even close. From where I am standing it is a good way to use them. Other bands should learn with Kardashev. Just kidding…

Kardashev “Alunea” will be released on April 25th via Metal Blade Records.

Track Listing:

1. A Precipice. A Door. 
2. Reunion
3. Seed of the Night
4. Speak Silence
5. Truth to Form
6. Edge of Forever
7. We Could Fold the Stars
8. Below Sun & Soil

Watch “Reunion” official lyric video here: