In early 2023 a big splash was recorded out of the swampy depths of our review pipe. Stargenesis just crashlanded in the midst of all those slithering creatures covered with age-old muck. As a good earth-bound galactic starship must, in a way.
And to our very own distress, 83 minutes of airtime just revealed themselves. Will those bands ever learn or don’t they just care? You see, it’s awfully difficult to forge some decent record out of so much material and NOT lose the audience in the process. So, what will we find? Total overload of ever-returning tedious tropes or stellar storytelling that’s right there on Olympus with all them other masters? Hit the warp drive, captain!
First off, Distress Call from Earth bases itself on a solid theme. Musings about the benefits of AI,1 or the lack thereof. Social injustice, drug abuse, and cynicism in this world. All of those – allegedly – nefarious developments that will shape a future generation still to come. In other words, this whole chebang ain’t about anything fantastical as you might have assumed. Instead, the band here tries to highlight all those thorny issues before us from a spacey point of view. Tell them aliens that humanity is self-destructing. That will get their galactic juices flowing.
The promo note told the RMR crew told us to expect Progressive Rock and Metal. And whilst some of that is indeed prominently present, the record often is more Power Metal than frankly is good for it. A brand of power prog that frequently sounds like a mix somewhere in between Jonas Lindberg & The Other side, a slight taste of Tool, and a less glitzy Red Cain. So, for those who expected a record to seriously challenge the old prog masters with abject djentology, this ain’t your album. Instead, we found an astonishingly well-constructed procession of tracks.
What’s more, the whole album somewhat resembles a power-infected offshoot of the far-reaching works of Arjen Lucassen’s Ayreon series. And those are inherently difficult to review. And the same is true with this specific Distress Call into outer space and its inherent, yet decidedly well-managed complexity. In other words, the band relentlessly throws an almost frightening mass of power-infused prog at you, at a pace that risks knocking the less die-hard future fans out of commission.
Already the opening salvo Welcome to Earth gets you a great introduction into Distress Call from the Earth. Interestingly, this may also be the song with the most elaborate solo on this whole record – brought to you in measured tones. And that on a record that positively gorges with a gazillion licks, snazzy riffs, and a ton of pretty cool solos. The slow groove of What If made us put the track on repeat for a while. Even if the opening lick seems to waltz straight out of something R.E.M. could have done.2
The Distress Call from Earth title series will definitely talk to the folks with a penchant for Fantasy Metal covered in galactic dust and dark matter. Cosmic atmospherics, ambient acoustics, and Valeriano de Zordo‘s stellar vocals meet Michele Vissani‘s burly riffs and keys for the final chapter of this installment of the story. And for folks with little time on their hands, these two tracks will give you a good idea of what this album is all about.
Could they have improved things? Sure. For instance, to increase reach, shorter airtime would have been much better. Creating some rock opera is always tricky, and by about 40 minutes of total metal attack, most fans’ brains mostly switch off. So, better keep it to that age-old wisdom ingrained in vinyl that limits records to about 40 minutes or so. Also, to just fade out a song, amidst a great solo to boot, always makes me wince (AI Storm, for instance). This often happens when bands are at a loss as to how to end a track with some flourish. And we’re not quite sure what the band’s ideas were on those.
But I daresay, Distress Call from Earth positively surprised the grouchy RMR crew. I expected a record hellbent on boring us to kingdom come with ever-returning subthemes and endless wallowing about the soundscape. Instead, Stargenesis created an engaging yet overly large set of tracks that didn’t make us escape to ‘real’ metal. And they did that with a friggin’ mountain of decent songwriting that never forgets its musicians. A pretty well-balanced mix of Progressive and Power Metal that never made you slip in too much cheese. And it does show that mix and master came from inside the band. More specifically, the bass player – Daniele Ferretto – made sure that the essence of the record wasn’t sacrificed on the holy altar of Mixing And Mastering for Dummies by some obscure studio somewhere.
That leaves us with an enjoyable piece of story-smithing that roared out of our music machine way longer than it should have. And that’s jolly good news after all.
Overly lengthy playtime grumpily accepted.
Record Rating: 7/10 | Label: Self-Released | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 16 January 2023