I'm not sure what's happened over the last month or so, but it seems as if the opportunities to work with bands that I've been listening to for years now keep coming. Of course I'm not complaining but the coincidence is pretty funny. This time around, I get to premiere a new track from one of my favorite bands working in the doom/post/ambient metal spaces - Flesh of the Stars. I rank these fine folks as one of the most underrated bands out there. Their penchant for moody, deeply moving, and sometimes haunting music is second to none, crafted with special dedication to tones (especially to wide-ranging and unique synths) and the tensions between heaviness and it release.
The Glass Garden, their upcoming album which releases in exactly one week, is no different. Well, that's not completely true. While it's definitely a Flesh of the Stars album, with all of the somber weight that this implies, it also contains some of the thrashiest and grooviest passages of the band's career. There's still plenty of ambience, melancholy, and shaded contemplation, as you can hear on the track we're premiering today, "After the Dream". But there are also riffs which are faster than ever before and cavernous moments that plumb depths of crushing heaviness which Flesh of the Stars have not delved until now present here in the extremely moving middle section of the track. These passages are described by the band as follows:
"After the Dream is the midpoint of the record, beginning as a moment to breathe amidst all the chaos. It slowly builds to a soaring prog-doom climax before descending into the oscillating, modulating void of its synth outro. Elements here were among the first & last written for the LP, & it went through many forms before settling into its final version. We think it's a good encapsulation of the many moods to be found on The Glass Garden. Thank you for listening."
Most of all, there's more of what I love this band for, namely expertly crafted, poignant, and effective doom and post metal. Make sure you check out the track below and head on through to the band's Bandcamp to pre-order the release; I can guarantee you it's one of 2023's finer albums.