Holy Shit Alert: Astronoid’s Air

One band can realize many hypotheticals. Imagine, you’re into the hard psych of Comet Control and Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malbus, but you long to pull each act into the era of post-Deafheaven extreme metal. Or maybe fans of sprawling cosmic black metal might wonder what the genre would resemble if suddenly placed under the spell of Deftones-esque clean vocals.

Elsewhere, a would-be lover of extreme pop music artists from Japan and Canada may be dogged by their idiosyncrasies and hoping for their departure from self-awareness and conceit. Or a listener tantalized by BTBAM’s melodies might consider hunkering down to snip out their stubborn DM detours. Finally, a casual fan of naturalist heavy rock a la Mastodon might dream of an exchange of wiggly riffs and tumbling pace for straight-line rippage and blast beats.

The answer to all of those maybes is Astronoid. Consider their new album Air the most melodic extreme metal album of 2016, the pairing of the vocals inspired by kaleidoscopic ’90s shoegaze and the pounding blizzard of black metal (not the common inverse: BM vocals and distantly mushy metal backing). Think BTBAM with blur in place of crunch, Cynic strapped to the grate of a dump truck, Mars Volta produced by Devin Townsend. An instant classic.

Astronoid’s new album Air came out Friday via Blood Music. Get it here and here.