Style: deathgaze, progressive death metal, technical death metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Fallujah, Rivers of Nihil, Devin Townsend, Ne Obliviscaris
Country: Arizona, United States
Release date: 25 April 2025
I’ve been a regular listener of Kardashev since discovering The Almanac back in 2018, when my taste for progressive death metal was still in its fetal stage. The band’s unique blend of deathcore-adjacent breakdowns and effervescent atmospherics that they dubbed “deathgaze” was something new to my ears, and in the time since that release I’ve yet to hear another group achieve a mixture quite so potent. Since that landmark EP, Kardashev has been busy, releasing The Baring of Shadows in 2020 and Liminal Rite in 2022—the latter of which, especially the track “Compost Grave-Song,” became a mainstay in my listening. Now, Kardashev returns with Alunea, a supposed sequel to The Almanac. Do the Arizonans deliver the goods, or is Alunea a deathgaze dud?
If there’s one thing you can always trust Kardashev to nail, it’s their atmosphere. Thanks to the band’s combination of cinematic riffage, heavy-handed production, and the seemingly endless array of guttural techniques at the disposal of vocalist Mark Garrett, each build-up feels like an event. From the symphonic-tinged intro of “A Precipice. A Door.” that begins the album to the reverb and delay-laden climaxes of tracks like “Reunion” and “Below Sun & Soil,” the album delivers frisson-inducing peak after peak. While this is standard fare for any Kardashev release, Alunea continues the trend that began on Liminal Rite and sees the band add even more technical death metal elements to their already vast sonic territory. Tracks like “Truth to Form” and “We Could Fold the Stars” each have moments that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Fallujah record, and these moments go a long way in diversifying the album’s pacing.
Within the context of progressive death metal, and especially compared to its predecessor Liminal Rite, Alunea is a lean record. Clocking in at forty-two minutes, the album forgoes the genre-typical trappings of atmospheric track transitions and lengthy intro buildups, instead getting right to the meat of each track with next to no downtime. In fact, the only transitional element to be found occurs at the end of “Truth to Form,” but even that only serves to amplify the pounding intro of follow-up track “Edge of Forever.” This no-frills approach is a double-edged sword for Alunea, as I find myself engaging with each new track but struggling to engage with the album’s concept or get invested in the album’s flow. For any normal metal release, this would scarcely be criticism, but I can’t help but want a little more concept in a sequel to a conceptual progressive death metal EP from a band as consistent as Kardashev.
Unfortunately, like many of the inter-track transitions, many of the transitions found within individual tracks on this album are too jarring for me to reconcile as a listener, even after multiple listens. While the reasons for my distaste are undoubtedly multitudinous, I can’t help but see one primary culprit: Mark Garrett’s vocals are too varied. That may seem ridiculous, but before you call bullshit, listen to any track off this album and count how many distinct guttural and clean vocal timbres hit your ears; you’ll need two hands at least. This is almost certainly due to a combination of Kardashev‘s beginnings as a pure deathcore act and the recent push from -core adjacent bands towards what has come to be known as “vocal olympics.” (Thank you, Lorna Shore!) The end result is the same as if the guitarists were dancing on their pedalboard for the entire track, constantly switching distortion sounds in what seems to be the middle of a riff. It’s that kind of thing that once you hear it, cannot be unheard.
If you are already a fan of Kardashev, you will like Alunea; I know I do. But I don’t see this album converting too many new fans. Where Kardashev’s previous releases were just as heavy and atmospheric as Alunea, they also had a much more coherent vibe. I understand that some may have called those previous releases bloated, but Alunea is an overcorrection in my eyes. In trimming the fat, Kardashev may have lost a bit of their soul. Here’s to hoping that this is just a blip in their discography and that the Arizonans once again find their footing on the next release.
Recommended tracks: Reunion, Seed of the Night
You may also like: An Abstract Illusion, Slice the Cake, Iotunn, Caelestra
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives
Label: Metal Blade Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Kardashev is:
– Nico Mirolla (guitars)
– Mark Garrett (vocals)
– Alex Rieth (bass)
– Sean Lang (drums)
With guests:
– Erin Dawson (vocals)
– Pawel JJ Przybysz (duduk)
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