Friday, October 28, 2016

Serpentine Dominion

The Astroplex - 2016 - The Chronicles Of Azhul'tar

The Astroplex is a death metal band from Canada. The Chronicles of Azhul'tar is their debut LP. The Astroplex play death metal augmented with synths and blasted into space.  Self branded as space metal, The Astroplex start with melodic death metal, adding elements of groove metal while building an epic ambience in the background. Instrumentally the songs alternate between modern black metal and synth driven expository sequences.



 Lyrically it tells the epic sci-fi adventure story of Captain Satis who seeks to overthrow Emperor Zarkhonn. Death Metal is not the first genre that comes to mind when thinking about vintage science fiction concept albums but The Astroplex pulls it off with style and riffs to spare. Herr Nox provides the black metal style guttural vocals with Lindsay Schoolcraft providing, at times operatic, clean backing vocals. With The Chronicles Of Azhul'tar The Astroplex have created Chapter 1 of this compelling, death metal epic.