Band:	Pulsar Colony
Album:	Snowball Earth
Style:	Ambient black metal, Avantgarde black metal, Experimental black metal
Release date:	November 29, 2011
A review by:	Troy Killjoy

01. Wounded Animal Of The Four Elements
02. Snowball Earth
03. Absolute Zero
04. Pillars Of Creation
05. Ancestral Recall
06. Calypso
07. Of Frostfang Origin
08. To Pluto And Beyond

Pulsar Colony is a relatively new project created by Charles Sabo back when he began recording the instrumental tracks for what would eventually become Snowball Earth back in 2009. Two years later he would throw in some vocals and upload it to his Bandcamp page for the world to hear.

Thankfully he did, because this is some pretty interesting stuff.

Aside from the cover art, this is fairly original for what it is. It's not like we have to make up an entirely new genre for it*, but it does well enough to stand out from the rest of the black metal scene. It mixes a lot of progressive elements in with a rather strange form of electronica, sometimes delving into a surreal sort of psychedelia only to crash down hard with a purely vile vengeance. Sabo's vocals sound like a mix between Mikko Aspa (of Deathspell Omega fame) and Kevin Jones (Towards Darkness - who release their new album in two days, coincidentally), which a variety of extreme metal fans should appreciate.

Sabo has chosen to wander through the album at little more than a snail's pace in black metal terms, slowing down even more to show off his skill with the half-dozen instruments that make their appearance over the course of 70 minutes. That's right, you're in for quite a lengthy journey if you plan on sitting through this from beginning to end, with the shortest track clocking in at over eight minutes. This all adds to the album's trippy atmosphere, providing a sort of Pink Floyd effect that might have you looking towards the sky late at night wondering, What the fuck am I doing with my life? Or maybe you just inject some opiates and chill the fuck out. I'm not your mom.

Back on track (length), if you take pride in your endurance and are on the lookout for forward-thinking extreme metal, there isn't any reason why you shouldn't enjoy what Sabo has to offer. His avant-garde approach should appease fans of black metal as well as his influences - which range anywhere from Mastodon and Tool to Neurosis and Gojira. It's a lot to digest and it's a bit of a challenge, but the rewards are well worth the effort.

* Okay, maybe we have to call it like, experimental atmospheric post-blackened progressive sludge metal or something. That should be ridiculous enough for the masses, no?