Band:	Astronoid
Album:	Astronoid
Style:	Shoegaze, Post-metal
Release date:	February 01, 2019
A review by:	RaduP

01. A New Color
02. I Dream In Lines
03. Lost
04. Fault
05. Breathe
06. Water
07. I Wish I Was There While The Sun Set
08. Beyond The Scope
09. Ideal World

It's good when bands grow past their initial sound, but that's not always a safe thing to do. In Astronoid's case, it kinda makes them lose what made them stick out in the first place.

Astronoid's Air was an absolutely bold surprise back in 2016, when I first heard it. With the blackgaze sound already on a downward trend, it was amazing to hear a band that could actually sound fresh in that context. I eventually listened to their first two EPs as well, though it was still Air that I was mostly coming back to with its soaring clean-all-of-the-time approach mixed with those black metal blast beats and melodies. Despite how saturated the blend of black metal and shoegaze had become, I felt like it was an approach that was new. Now comes their second album, a self-titled one, which must mean that there ought to be a strong sense of identity on it.

And I'm not feeling it as much. It's quite instantly clear that this is still the same band that recorded Air, since the sugary and ecstatic vocals are instantly recognizable, but it feels like there's only half of what had made the sound stick. After a few minutes of listening I realized: the black metal element is gone. Or mostly gone; I could still feel some of it on tracks like "I Wish I Was There While The Sun Set". The album still contrasts the shoegaze with some djenty post-metal, but at this point it doesn't sound unique anymore. This is atmospheric djent that I have heard before. And I'm not gonna claim that it sucks just because "not metal anymore". I liked Alcest's Shelter or pretty much any 2000's Anathema album. Heck, I even like Opeth's Heritage more than Watershed.

It's about loss of identity. Usually bands feel like making such changes a bit later in their career when the weight of having to stick to a sound gets bigger and bigger, thus making their fans groan that "it doesn't sound like [whatever] anymore". But Astronoid still sounds like Astronoid, just much hollower. Instead of feeling fresh, their all-blissful approach seems one-dimensional and shallow; I could choose any half-minute sample from it and it would sound great, but having it stretch for an entire record gets quite tedious, even if the record isn't honestly that long. I am, of course, grossly exaggerating and the album does have its fair share of dynamic range and the post/djent/prog elements are quite well done and the drumming is still top-notch. I don't want you to go on with the impression that this isn't a good album. But they replaced being fresh in an overly done genre to being overly done in an overly done genre.

This could prove to be a misstep for Astronoid or maybe they could prove that they can grow even further and do something even better than their debut. But they have to either go forward or go back.