Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway
Space… the final frontier. When your starship is in fact a, or THE, Green Meteor from The City Of Brotherly Love then it’s all about space for sure. Well, space and partaking in some out of this world heavy rock music. That is exactly what we are invited to do with the Argonauta Records debut from this Philly-based four-piece, ‘Consumed By A Dying Sun.‘
It will be released tomorrow (April 21st, 2017) and when it is, you will come to know what modern space rock is here and now in the 21st century. Our pilots for this realization are the first-name-only figures, Amy (guitar), Leta (guitar /vocals), Algar (bass), and Tony (drums).
There’s a payload of cosmic-fostered sludginess in their riffs and a universe worth of psyche-infused Stoner Rock to share here. Things achieve outer orbit quickly with the introductory song “Acute Emerald Elevation“. Fuzzy rhythms propel us into the song via a lengthy, slow-rolling greeting while we adjust to the lack of gravity. Airy, floating music cushions us upward until the moment we hit the bricks of heavy riffs bleeding off their energy around us. The ghostly, ethereally-tinged female vocals are somewhat hypnotically lulling and comforting. The periodic samples from Mission Control are also a very nice touch and definitely drive the narrative well.
Our second externalizing exercise arrives with the long-playing “Sleepless Lunar Dawn“, perhaps my favorite offering here. The atmospherics are instantly more groove-laden as the song spirals through a variety of tempos. Things are much cleaner all around on the bluesier bounce-along altitude we gain with this one. At nearly ten minutes in length, there is much to be explored, while the drum work itself is solid and beyond astounding.
Distortion. Feedback. Sludgy… as thickened ruts of deeper tones and attitude take over on “In The Shadow Of Saturn“. The heavy and the halcyonic merge and meld themselves into one fluid, oozing roll of hazy music. Things periodically ripple with bursts of increased energy, where flurries of sonic interactions emanate and enthrall. The wahhed-out solos near the end are, simply put, powerful. Things eventually ring out with a series of what sounds like radar pings.
The calm is soon sent to erupting with the fattened fuzz of “Mirrored Parabola Theory“. This is acid rock embodied, with its trippy mystique, hazy vocals, and persistent, non-stop riffs. The shortest song of the five, clocking in at a 3:34 minute playing time, means things seem a bit more focused or on point.
Before you know it, we become embroiled in the punkish, new wavy overtones of the title track, “Consumed By A Dying Sun“. At least during the verses, anyway, for as the meatier parts arrive things instantly get all thick again. Dense with riffing effectiveness and some super tight-knit rhythmic swirls beneath our feet, the fallout of frenetic guitar licks buzz about. The more straightforward styling and cleaner vocals mean things will ultimately end on another fantastic high note here.
That high note and the blatant stoner/doom determination of Green Meteor‘s ‘Consumed By A Dying Sun‘ is more than merely respectable. Its resilient grit is chock full of all the right stuff to get us to where we want to be. It does not matter if it’s across the stars, traversing the milky way, or right here with feet planted on Terra Firma. This release is gonna land right up many heavy rock fans’ alleys and provide them the one giant leap they so assuredly need.
