STARGAZER — A Great Work Of Ages (review)

STARGAZER — A Great Work Of Ages album cover Album · 2010 · Technical Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
UMUR
"A Great Work Of Ages" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Australian death metal act Stargazer. The album was released through Profound Lore Records in August 2010. Stargazer formed as far back as 1995 and has released several splits and an EP before releasing their debut full-length studio album "The Scream That Tore the Sky" in 2005.

The music on the album is at it´s core old school death metal, but this is by no means a "regular" sounding old school death metal album. The music also features elements of black metal and it´s quite adventurous too, bordering progressive. It´s no surprise though if you´re familiar with some of the other acts that some of the members are or have been associated with like Mournful Congregation, Misery's Omen and Portal. None of which play conventional sounding music either. The influence from the darkness and chaos of Portal and the busy bass playing and semi-progressive structures of Misery's Omen are audible. Those are just elements of Stargazer´s music though and they do have quite a unique sound of their own.

The lyrics and the image of the band revolve around mysticism and other dark and sinister subjects and provide the sound with the right mood to suit the mystic and dark atmosphere of the music, which song titles like "The Morbid Slither, The Sinner Slough", "Refractive Convex Continuum" and "Formless Face of the Timeless Faceless" also bear witness to. Other then "Chase For The Serpentsong" which is 9:15 minutes long, the tracks stay within the 4 to 6 minutes time range, but quite a lot happens in that time (vers/chorus structures are more or less abandoned). Everything happens for a reason though and help build the sinister atmosphere. The pace changes often and there are everything from blast beating to doomy sections featured in the music. The vocals range from aggressive sneering, to brutal intelligible growls to unintelligible inhuman growling.

In addition to the distorted parts Stargazer also incorporates atmospheric clean guitar parts in the music. It´s not a dominant feature on the album, but it´s quite nice for the variation when those sections occur. So the songwriting is certainly top notch and the musicianship equally so and fortunately the same can be said about the dynamic and organic sounding production which grace "A Great Work Of Ages". A high quality release through and through, deserving a 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating. This is an album which should greatly appeal to fans of the above mentioned acts, but maybe fans of acts like Opeth and Enslaved might find something to like here to.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Rot Stink Rip Death Metal
TOMBSTONER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Human Rosin Melodic Metalcore
HATE BREEDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Through The Hell Hardcore Punk
ENEMY 906
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lightmatter: Rebirth Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Eye Of Horus (Lightmatter EP Pt. 2) Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 5 days ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 5 days ago
Agremorta - Vertex Membrana (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 5 days ago
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR - The Temple Of Curved Space (Official Track Stream)
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
adg211288· 5 days ago
In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 6 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed