I have heard the future of music, and it belongs to Starset. Following up the band’s critically acclaimed 2014 debut, Transmissions, Vessels will continue to story of The Starset Society and expand on the galactic myths.
The band’s fans, known as Messengers, who attended the December 2nd and 3rd, 2017 live shows, or Demonstrations, were treated to performances of Monster, the album’s 1st single, and Back to the Earth, its 2nd single. The two tracks gave fans a brief glimpse of what encompasses the vast sound of Vessels.
It’s been said that a musician has his entire life to write a debut album, but only a few months to write their sophomore release. Bates admitted that the album was “stressful to make.” I believe that stress came from creating a completely new genre of music. Working again with Rob Graves and Ben Grosse, Vessels has some similar sonic qualities to Transmissions, but is far from a carbon copy of the band’s debut release. Guitars are bent. Vocals soar, and range from a guttural growl to a pleading whisper. Piano chords crash into thunder guitar riffs, and create a sound of epic proportion.
While I’ve been sworn to secrecy, and embargoed from revealing full album details, or a review, some secrets are hard to keep to be kept.
As a whole, I believe Vessels is a concept album that uses its 14 tracks to tell a love story of astronomic proportions. I find the album to be the story of star-crossed lovers, the likes of which haven’t been seen since Romeo and Juliet. Vocalist and founder Dustin Bates uses scientific analogies revolving around astronomy and a bombastic intergalactic sound to tell the doomed love story of “Apollo” and his as-yet-unnamed lover. Apollo’s story, told throughout Vessels can be broken down into 4 acts, of which Monster is taken from the album’s final act, and Back to the Earth from it’s second.
Just as I said with the release of Transmissions, Vessels will change the way you listen to music.
Vessels is currently available for pre-order on iTunes, and will have its official release on January 20th, 2017. The band will be touring extensively in 2017, including Demonstrations at most of the major rock and metal festivals in the U.S.
