(Our writer DGR is still playing catch-up in reviewing albums released earlier this year, but now taking them one at a time instead of presenting collections. Today the subject is the fourth album from the Swedish post-black metal band Together To The Stars.)
Much like actual interstellar travel (or interstellar travel as we would imagine it) it has taken a while for us to come into the orbit of Sweden’s Together To The Stars. The group, having existed for seven years and four albums, have never found themselves on a trajectory that brought them close to our lovely little corner of the internet. Their newest album Iridescence – which saw release in early June, though truthfully yours truly finally glanced in the direction of its eye-rending pink in early August – offers us an opportunity to rectify that.
Together To The Stars’ take on black metal – of the much acclaimed post-metal variety – is both enrapturing and infectious, without devolving into a series of tropes or markers so recognizable you can hear the gears of the machine turning in the background. By focusing heavily on climactic moments within each song, as well as memorable guitar work, and a shade of the depressive world of black metal, Together To The Stars find themselves with a gorgeous amalgamation of music that lands them pretty close to Harakiri For The Sky territory while still maintaining an identity free of expected histrionics.
Iridescence is six songs spread across forty-four minutes of music. Those of us well traversed in the post-black and more melodeath-tinged edge of the depressive-black metal scene will recognize these measurements for what they are without hearing a note. Roughly translated, Together To The Stars have created six highly intricate and interwoven songs that constantly cycle back around on themselves. These are not songs of part-after-part-after-part collapsing over one another like shoppers trying to get to a $300 television set but more like a tenacious animal that once it locks its jaws around a specific melody and mood refuses to let go.
It isn’t immediately apparent, as the opening songs of Iridescence – lush as they are, constructed out of beautiful effects and soundscapes – seem a little reserved, with two of the opening three only daring to toe up close to the six-minute mark. “Ichor”, for instance, has the unenviable job of opening up Iridescence and so it must cover a wide swath of Together To The Stars’ chosen style. As intricate as the song is, it is likely that it achieves its punching weight mostly by density rather than stretching for atmosphere. While we’re likely to run out of synonyms for beauty over the course of this review, “Ichor” has a recognizable beauty to it. Opening soft and ratcheting up the emotional intensity over the course of six minutes, by the time Together To The Stars’ start howling out the opening lines you’ll recognize that they are a group well within their comfort zone.
“Mourner” is awash with sensation from the moment the drums kick in. It is a song that is meant to be played loud and by design overwhelms by sheer force of sound. Death metal relies on this by utter battering and unceasing brutality, and that overwhelming sense comes from the listener feeling as if they’ve been placed underfoot. With a song like “Mourner”, that overwhelming sense comes in how many waves of sound crash ashore over the course of five minutes. “Mourner” colors a lot of the opening impression of the album as it is a song of seemingly little subtlety. Even in its quite and reserved moments – in comparison to how bombastic the opening is – “Mourner” still seems on the edge of explosion.
This of course, carries over into “Malachite” such that the two play off of each other as if they are siblings. “Malachite” may be a little longer, more pensive, and more dynamic in its multi-faceted vocal approach but the two songs combine enough in the album’s sequence that they almost feel as if they are the same general mood, just flipped over and approached from different angles. Again, the closing moments of “Malachite” take a similar tack to much of Iridescence in that the finality of the song shines with gorgeous guitar parts and lead melodies. It even dances on the edge of being declared “pretty” were it not for the anguish that strangles the vocal attack and refuses to let its protagonist go.
The two gargantuan epics that devour the back half of Iridescence are “Som en Glödande Krona” at nine minutes and “Pale Asters” at eleven-plus. These are the songs much referenced when we discussed how they songs continually loop back around on one another into an eventual musical gordian knot. Together To The Stars allow themselves more room to breathe within those two songs, giving them the full dramatic treatment. Whether it be by solo guitar or whimpered vocals, these are songs that have enough peaks and valleys that they could be geographically mapped and laid out as if they were countries in their own right.
Granted, countries full of a lot of haunted misery given Together To The Stars’ intensely emotive approach to music, yet they are a group wholly dedicated to the idea of drawing some sort of beauty out of an emotional frost. While we as listeners can definitely recognize the echo effect as a calling card, like a signal flare shot off from three counties over, it is still put to tremendous effect as Together To The Stars both crash and throw themselves in fits through the course of each song.
The band even take a few breaks for full spoken word, with those segments immediately wiped from the table with the next furious cry emanating from the band. Together To The Stars do well for themselves on these two songs with the quiet breaks, as it may seem by the closing segments of Iridescence that the group have no room for subtlety left, but the impact from when the band finally emerge from their cocoon of silence – the intro to “Pale Asters” specifically – means the impact is enough to shake buildings.
Were Iridescence not an album designed to be gorgeous by way of emotional catharsis you could almost treat it as if it were an expertly designed supercar. It is sleek in its approach to music, and four albums of experience have left Together To The Stars as master craftsmen of their chosen style. They are zealous in their determination to ensure that you walk away from Iridescence feeling something, even if it is just being absolutely shaken by how much overwhelming melancholy the band can pack within a specific song.
It’s not an entirely negative experience, as this sort of explosive catharsis can let a ton of weight off of your shoulders, and that is partially the purpose of music like this. Together To The Stars become a vessel to your own awakening, and even though they may not be able to shake whatever demons have taken up residence on their own shoulders, perhaps a trip through Iridescence is enough to help lighten your load – even if it translates to more weight for Together To The Stars to carry.
Yes, Iridescence is recognizably lush and beautiful, pulling from a well-laid-out blueprint and a bag of well-practiced tricks, but Together To The Stars more than make this music sound as if it belongs to them and could only emerge from the hallowed hollows of their caves. Iridescence is a perfect fall and winter album, somehow unleashed in the beginning of summer and fully worth making the trip for.
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