Band:	Aastyra
Album:	Aastral Projections
Style:	Ambient black metal
Release date:	September 18, 2007
A review by:	Lucas

01. Schism
02. Interstellar Death Race
03. Terra
04. Of Spirit And Captivity
05. Wanderers Of The Post-Apocalypse
06. Xenopia
07. Adversary
08. The Mechanical Womb
09. Shadowmirror

Hello all! I'm pleased to announce that today you'll be witnessing the first-ever episode of "Black metal for dummies: Recognizing signs of kvltness". With the recent coming of that thing called "the internet" (google it if you don't know what that is), Black metal has gone through an explosive growth. Everybody has a Black metal project, so how are you supposed to seperate the good from the bad? That's what "Black metal for dummies" is all about and in today's episode we're going to focus exclusively on recognizing signs of kvltness. Boy, are you as excited as I am?

We're going to approach these classes from a practical point of view, so please all Google/Bing (doesn't really work as a verb, does it?)/search for Aastyra. Now let's look at the cold hard facts: MySpace member since 06/2007, last log-in in 6/2009. Because everybody knows MySpace ist krieg!!!! but also for pussies. Let's continue: an 'ancient' font (probably available in Word) is used for the band logo, a five-minute photoshop job serving as album cover and more guest musicians than steady band members. 'tis all a bit overwhelming, isn't it? That'll be enough for now, don't forget to do your homework (= become best friends with a panda at the zoo and take a picture with him) and I'll see you all next week.

All kidding aside though, Aastyra ain't half bad. In fact, they're pretty enjoyable. Their (self-proclaimed) style is "Experimental Ambient Black metal", which basically stands for space-themed Black metal laced with keyboards. You can expect to often find a frenzy of high-paced piano notes set against a highly distorted, fuzzy and washed out backgroud of riffs. Coupled with fast, exploding drums and you should have a good idea of this overall fast-paced, badly produced album.

Another aspect to this album, which is probably where tag "Experimental" stems from (*cough*), is the incessant stream of interludes. We've got: fat kid running through a dried-up forest (honestly, what is that supposed to be on "Terra"), kids singing a stupid song (also on "Terra"), annoying birds whistling (you guessed it, also on "Terra"), the seemingly endless stream of "divine" female chants (on "Of Spirit And Captivity"), the shenigans continue on "Wanderer Of The Postapocalypse" and finally, finally (!!) we're back in business on "Xenopia". Unfortunately, it all quickly waters down again...

In the end, Aastral Projections is half-good, half-bad. Part of it is boring nonsense, part of it is enjoyable but hardly innovative Black metal. Focus your attention on other bands, that's my advice.