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Blog Categories Review Astral Sleep - We Are Already Living In The End Of Times - Reviewed By hellfire!

Astral Sleep - We Are Already Living In The End Of Times - Reviewed By hellfire! Wednesday May 31 2023, 7:47 PM

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Astral Sleep - We Are Already Living In The End Of Times - Reviewed By hellfire ! Check it out here at this link: https://www.hellfire-magazin.de/astral-sleep-we-are-already-living-in-the-end-of-times/

Astral Sleep from Finland has been around for a while, since 2004 actually. But it wasn't until their last album, “ Astral Doom Musick ”, that many took notice of the band – myself included. However, the first contact was so good that I bought essential parts of their back catalogue. Much to my delight, by the way, because on the previous albums the band pursued a rather dirty rehearsal room aesthetic, which I really liked. With "Astral Doom Musick" the sound changed towards "big production" - and Astral Sleep continue this way on " We Are Already Living in the End of Times ".

Personally, I don't think that's as good, because the band's fourth long-player overall sounds a bit spongy. Specifically: I don't think the individual instruments are clearly separated from each other. Everything somehow blurs in the reverberation as it would arise inside a gigantic church. This may be intended by the band, but unfortunately my listening sensitivity doesn't jump into it as much as it could. It's a shame, because there could be a lot more going on.

In other words: In terms of songwriting, “ We Are Already Living in the End of Times ” is probably Astral Sleep 's most mature work to date . The album is consistently exciting, it seems to me more like a single song that increases continuously than like a collection of six individual songs. I also really like the cover art as an illustration of what's happening on the album, plus it's refreshingly different for the Death-Doom genre. If the band had opted for a somewhat more organic sound, they might have scored two more points here.

Unfortunately, it's “only” 7 out of 10 HELLFIRE points . hellfire

Release Date: 21. April 2023

FFO: YOB, Crowbar, Solitude Aeturnus

Location: Finland

Short Bio: Astral Sleep hails from Finland, Tellus. The group has wreaked havoc on the metal genre since 2005. Astral Sleep's music fuses various musical styles into an unique entity dubbed "Astral Doom Musick": The boundaries of different sub-genres of Doom are ripped apart, mingled with pieces of jazz, psych-rock, noise, and various styles of metal, and sown back together into the monstrosities that they are. Astral Sleep's mission is finding eternal bliss in the world on its inevitable trajectory towards Doom.

Album art made by Mark Cooper (markcooperart.com)

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<a href="https://astralsleep.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-already-living-in-the-end-of-times"> We Are Already Living In The End Of Times by Astral Sleep</a>