Station Dysthymia - Overhead, Without Any Fuss, The Stars Were Going Out review
| Band: | Station Dysthymia |
| Album: | Overhead, Without Any Fuss, The Stars Were Going Out |
| Style: | Drone doom metal |
| Release date: | July 01, 2013 |
| A review by: | BitterCOld |
01. A Concrete Wall [feat. M. Hater]
02. Ichor
03. Starlit: A Rude Awakening
04. Starlit: We Rest At Last [feat. I. Stellarghost]
"A Concrete Wall", the opening track to this album, is the sonic equivalent of the Star Trek movie. No, not the 2009 action packed reboot? the "boring" one released back in 1979.
Like the movie it is long, slow moving and slow developing. On one hand, for a lot of folks, that's a recipe for coma-inducing boredom. For others, like myself, in this case it's a monolithic, gripping listen that ensnares you, has its way with your auditory senses (albeit terribly slowly), and leaves you bound for 30+ minutes.
The core of Station Dysthymia's sound is funeral doom, only with lots of various other elements of other doom sub/related genres tossed in. Some drone here, psychedelia there. There are passages that sound like well done "SFDD" (same funeral, different day), followed by other passages that sound like a Sunn O))) riff played at 78 RPM (so still slow compared to most metal), with an Esoteric-like sanity stripping ambient noise creeping around the background.*
The other three tracks found on Overhead, Without Any Fuss, The Stars Were Going Out also embody these very same traits, only in a much shorter fashion. "Ichor" clocks in at over 18 minutes, and the two closers, "Starlit - A Rude Awakening" and instrumental sibling "Starlit - We Rest At Last" are a grindcore-esq nine minutes and change each. Yeah, when something a hair under ten minutes seems short, you know they've packed in a lot of music. And they've packed a lot into their music as well? the slow movement might make it seem like not a lot is going on, a lot is going on.
With the year more than halfway done, this is probably my favorite "extreme doom" release of 2013. So, yeah, worth checking out.
*- Side note: once again we find the presence of extreme doom's Al Jourgenson? Greg Chandler. Tack this on the growing list of albums he has helped master.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 9 |
 | Written on 04.08.2013 by BitterCOld has been officially reviewing albums for MetalStorm since 2009. |
Comments
Comments: 17
Visited by: 240 users
| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989  |
A band that sounds like a mix of Sun O))) and Esoteric? Count me in!
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| !J.O.O.E.! Account deleted |
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| !J.O.O.E.! Account deleted |
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374  |
Written by [user id=4365] on 04.08.2013 at 06:49 Could be worse... He could've said "Sunno"  In any case, I MUST check this stuff out. Seems hella promising. Great review, I'm sold.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Alex F Posts: 3519  |
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| Merchant of Doom Posts: 702  |
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| !J.O.O.E.! Account deleted |
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted Written by Merchant of Doom on 04.08.2013 at 12:08 Why, are you going to talk to us about genres again?  Sorry, couldn't resist that.
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| Merchant of Doom Posts: 702 |
Written by [user id=4365] on 04.08.2013 at 13:32 lol... no, BitterCold's review is spot on... He just forgot to mention that M. Hater and I. Stellarghost of Abstract Spirit feature as guest musicians... you can clearly hear some Abstract Spirit influence in the album.
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| Chobo_jokeR Posts: 441  |
Great review for a great album. This has been a pretty fantastic year for doom (Mourning Beloveth, Officium Triste and Lycus to name a few), and now we get this. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and the review was spot on with the type of sound. Greg Chandler has the Midas Touch thats for sure. EDIT: I've spun the album several times now...as of right now, this is my favourite extreme doom album of the year. You don't get this quality of music every day, and I'm not going to complain if these guys sound like Esoteric. Thanks BitterCOld.
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| Daggon Underpaid M.D. Posts: 1689  |
Dammit MS, all of you are overloading my mind with soul-crushing bands and albums!
---- "Les vers savent qu'ils n'ont pas d'ailes, c'est pour cela qu'ils se cachent sous terre"
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| Saiyanity Posts: 178  |
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15288  |
Written by Chobo_jokeR on 04.08.2013 at 20:41 Afraid it will get overlooked - seems most those I review for Solitude are come award time - but still my favorite in the genre this year.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989 |
I just came back to this album and it is indeed seriously good. Even made me switch my pick in the MSA from The Ruins Of Beverast to this
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989 |
By the way, the title of this comes from an Arthur C Clarke story called "The Nine Billion Names Of God." It's about these Tibetan Buddhist monks who have a traditional prophecy that the world will end when all the names of God are written down. They invent an alphabet through which they can count the names, and get some Westerners to help them with typing up the names on a computer so the process will go faster. The Westerners think the monks will get angry when they have the last name on the computer and nothing happens, so they take off from their camp one night. As they look back at the Tibetans' location, they look up at the sky and begin to notice that "overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out," and that the prophecy was fulfilled.
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15288 |
Written by Auntie Sahar on 14.02.2014 at 05:16 Well done. You get a gold star.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| RaduP CertifiedHipster Staff Posts: 9031  |
What a fantastic record this one is.
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15288 |
Written by RaduP on 19.11.2022 at 21:30 Damn skippy.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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