Style: progressive rock (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Subsignal, Riverside, Porcupine Tree, Rush
Country: Germany
Release date: 30 September 2005

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We all have those albums that simply stick with us. No matter how much new music is released, or how our tastes change, some old favorites will consistently find a way back into our ears. Sometimes, nostalgia or a sense of comfort drives the return; other times, it’s the music’s enduring quality. Whatever the case, those personally eternal albums are worth celebrating—what more can we ask of music, really?

Plenty of albums that shaped my taste fall into this category, some of the earlier, more universal ones being The Number of the Beast and Rust in Peace, followed by Death’s Symbolic and Opeth’s legendary Blackwater Park. As for the more obscure, both of my previous Lost In Time posts fit the bill: Vulture Industries’ The Tower and Subterranean Masquerade’s Suspended Animation Dreams are records I discovered well into my musical journey, and they’ve stuck around nonetheless. Continuing along these lines is The Art of Navigating by the Stars, the magnum opus of Germany’s Sieges Even. 

The Art of Navigating by the Stars was released in 2005—twenty years after the band formed—and I stumbled upon it in the summer of 2014. That summer, I had graduated from college, traveled through Europe with a few buddies, and was preparing for my next chapter: three upcoming years at a law school on the other side of the U.S. I distinctly remember putting the album on repeat as I drove across the country. Its lyrical themes of finding direction, success and failure, and stepping into the unknown resonated particularly well at the time. More than that, though, The Art of Navigating by the Stars hit me holistically, as a perfect display of progressive rock—instrumentally brilliant, deeply atmospheric, emotional, and infectiously listenable. A dozen years later, some nostalgia has built around the album, but it’s those musical qualities and how the record is experienced as a whole that have kept me hooked.

Writing about The Art of Navigating by the Stars is like standing plate-in-hand at a luxury hotel’s buffet—where to start? Let’s begin with the bones. After thirty seconds of a baby’s laughter, the eight remaining tracks total over an hour, each bearing a title prefixed with “Sequence” and a Roman numeral. (I’ll leave those out of my track references.) Despite this titling convention, the songs don’t form a unified narrative. Motifs reappear across some of the tracks, yet each stands individually, conceptually related to the others but not part of a chronological tale. Still, the listening experience feels as coherent and profound as any proper concept album.

“The Weight” kicks off the album in earnest and establishes a motif that repeats at the album’s midpoint and at its end. A dark cauldron of bubbling bass and arpeggiated guitars simmers below vocalist Arno Menses as he repeats the line, ‘The view from here is frightening’—or, in the final track, ‘Will the view from there be frightening?’ The motif’s repetition functions as waypoints, assuring progress as the airy guitars, complex rhythms, and emotionally charged vocals carry us on a winding, ardent journey. Markus Steffen’s reverb-drenched guitars shimmer across the album, with a tone on the cleaner side but offering heavy, distorted bites for emphatic moments. Alongside this, Oliver Holzwarth’s bass and Alex Holzwarth’s drums pack a strong sonic punch, but the brothers play with elegant restraint, stylishly guiding the album forward and unleashing only when the music demands. One such outburst is during the Rush-tinged chorus of “Stigmata,” and you’d be hard-pressed to find a more striking interplay between the bass and drums outside of The Holy Triumvirate themselves. The album’s speckless production ensures every instrument is clear as crystal; there’s absolutely nowhere to hide. Sieges Even take full advantage, delivering one of the tightest performances I’ve ever heard. 

Instrumentally, The Art of Navigating by the Stars is dazzling but not gratuitous. The album proceeds at a deliberate pace, moving patiently through an array of time signatures and complicated yet natural rhythmic change-ups. Although the songs each have recognizable verses and choruses, the band are hardly content to keep it simple. The multipart verse of “The Lonely Views of Condors,” one of the most accessible cuts, still covers several textures and tempos, while the chorus in “Lighthouse” offers a dextrous, irresistibly groovy cymbal pattern and repeats with added rhythmic verve led by the bass the final time around. Even after more than a decade, I’ll invariably notice a new detail—or a few—with each listen. Further coloring the album are lengthy bridges and instrumental passages. “Unbreakable,” for instance, spends four full minutes adventuring among headspinning bass and guitar leads, ever-shifting drums, and complementary vocal passages. Similar can be said of the glorious mid-section of album closer “Styx.” The styling is unabashedly progressive, but Sieges Even never lose their melodic focus or compromise the astoundingly cohesive songwriting. 

More than anything, though, The Art of Navigating by the Stars is plainly memorable. Anchored by tasteful choruses, those in “To the Ones Who Have Failed” and “The Lonely Views of Condors” being prime examples, the album never strays far from a singable moment. Arno Menses’ vocal delivery is as expressive as it is melodic—delicate but emotionally forceful, and showcased most at its most exposed in the standout acoustic bit “Blue Wide Open.” Meanwhile, even when the band veer into instrumental excursions full of bustling riffs and solos, distinctive guitar melodies and bass lines provide footholds amidst the fray. Indeed, Oliver Holzwarth lays down one of the most memorable bass performances you’ll hear. His thick, wandering bass lines bolster nearly every second of the album, whether driving the rhythm, noodling along with his brother’s incredible drumming, or popping off a solo of his own, as toward the end of “The Weight.” Every note is placed meticulously, enhancing the music around him while hammering out mindbending flourishes that burrowed into my brain long ago and haven’t left. 

The record has it all—perfect production, captivating songwriting, incredible performances, and thematic and emotional weight, coalescing with magnificent synergy. Although the songs might not line up narratively, the pacing and musical flow between them would make you think so. A steady atmosphere hangs and morphs, while each track feels like another step forward in the album’s titular journey. Intrigue builds as Sieges Even draw you deeper into the sonic tapestry they’ve woven, until an hour has passed seemingly in a span of minutes. An experience like this is one worth writing about, even so many years after it first took hold of me. 

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Sieges Even would release one more record before breaking up, ending on a high note with Paramount in 2007—a work that might not rival The Art of Navigating by the Stars, but was well done nevertheless. Arno Menses and Markus Steffen went on to form the prog rock group Subsignal, which is still active, although Menses left the band last year. Meanwhile, the Holzwarth brothers have held roles in numerous projects, most notably as members of various iterations of the power metal band Rhapsody. All four individuals have strong musical legacies, but they share The Art of Navigating by the Stars as their pinnacle. Beyond a personal favorite, the record scrapes the ceiling of modern progressive rock. Twenty-one years of sediment may have left it all but buried in the musical world more broadly, but The Art of Navigating by the Stars remains an essential work that I’ll never hesitate to dust off for another spin.

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Recommended tracks: The Lonely Views of Condors, Stigmata, To the Ones Who Have Failed, Lighthouse
You may also like: SubLunar, Oak, Reflections, Kingcrow

Related links: Official Website | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Inside Out Music

On The Art of Navigating by the Stars, Sieges Even were:
– Arno Menses (vocals)
– Markus Steffen (guitars)
– Alex Holzwarth (drums)
– Oliver Holzwarth (bass)
With guest:
– Walter Dorn (flute on “Lighthouse”)