Artwork by: Bahrull Marta

Style: Death Doom Metal, Progressive Metal, Atmospheric Sludge Metal, Progressive Death Metal (Harsh Vocals)
Recommended for fans of: The Ruins of Beverast, Cult of Luna, Thou
Country: United States (Montana)
Release date: 27 May 2026

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Philosophy has long been a sticking point with many a progressive metal band; without an Alan Watts sample or narrative on Jungian principles, how else are we to know how insightful and deep their music is compared to “Girls Girls Girls”, after all? I jest, of course, but some of it can get rather pretentious and I’ll be the first to admit much of what’s being talked about goes over my head—but damn if there isn’t something fascinating about the whole pursuit. Perhaps vital, too, in our age of boiling anti-intellectualism.

While other bands gravitate towards stalwarts like Carl Jung, Watts, or Freidrich Nietzsche, Montana’s Galvanist look towards French philosopher Georges Bataille for inspiration in bringing their aphotic, semi-dissonant death doom to life. Who’s that, you ask? I don’t know either, but he thought about a lot of stuff like accursed shares, base materialism, human sacrifice,¹ and… testicles? Anyway, Galvanist’s sophomore album, The Silence Between Stars, weaves a tale of the “agonizing onset of an individual’s physical incarnation, and the search for purpose, the relation between entities, between persons and place, and the transcendent remembrance of beings and realities existent beyond the corporeal.” That sounds convincingly philosophical to me, so the big question is: Do Galvanist have what it takes to be remembered in their lifetime? Or, like Bataille, will they be cursed to obscurity until after they’re gone?

Galvanist waste no time asserting a sense of alien foreboding with the atmospheric opener, “Bornless”, whose warbling synths and questing bleep-boops evince a sense of wandering through a formless void, before “Atrophy” births the listener into consciousness with a violent, burst of sinisterly contorting guitars and Tanner Erhart’s tortured bellows. Drummer Chris Navarro sets the pace, moving from measured hits to tumbling fills and gravitonic blasts that feels like being pulled through the womb of Creation against one’s will—a starlit journey into an awakening, replete with all the wonders and horrors that such sublime awareness entails. Micah Tippit’s (guitarist, keyboards) keys act as textural devices across The Silence Between Stars, coming in to either heighten tension (“Atrophy”), or deliver moments of transcendent hope (“Dreich”) alongside the harrowing, occasionally beautiful guitarwork he and Erhart have conjured. What’s more, the band have managed to create a seamlessly fluid run of tracks that nonetheless all stand on their own, each a glittering star worthy of note within the constellation that is The Silence Between Stars.

Really, the only loose end in all of Galvanist’s efforts here is “Bornless”, which—as I find is the case with most intro tracks—could have simply been added onto “Atrophy” and saved us all the trouble of a sixty-three second track. Oh, and despite the production being generally delightful in its suffocating aura and punchiness, as is typical for metal, Kevin George’s bass is by and large inaccessible to mortal ears. Small nitpicks which do little to dent the album’s overall potency… which may have those who’ve sneaked a peek at the score below wondering how we got there. The answer is simple: there’s just something missing that pushes The Silence Between Stars from “really good” to “great”, an absence of that mystical, undefinable X Factor required to open up the third ear.

Make no mistake: Galvanist are doing everything right on this album. There’s no performance that feels lacking or inconsistent; the music is paced and composed in such a way that allows for atmosphere without sacrificing forward momentum; and even the Ashenspire-esque talk-screaming on “Dreich” works. The Silence Between the Stars is a solid record that comes easily recommendable, but for me the infectiousness needed to attain higher status is frustratingly, tantalizingly out of reach. Maybe one day, like Bataille and other thinkers and creatives before (and after) him, I’ll come to appreciate Galvanist’s work here in a fuller capacity; but for now, I’ll have to leave the true admiration in the hands of others.

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Recommended tracks: Atrophy, Dreich
You may also like: Void of Light, Skaphos, Sidera, IATT
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Galvanist is:
– Kevin George (bass)
– Chris Navarro (drums)
– Micah Tippit (guitars, keyboards)
– Tanner Erhart (vocals, guitars)

1. Apparently he started a suicide cult called Acéphale, where everyone agreed to be a sacrificial victim, but the group couldn’t find a willing executioner to sacrifice them before the club collapsed as WWII kicked off. ↩︎