2017

Starset “Vessels” Album Review

January 29, 2017January 30, 2017 Derek Soto album review, demonstrations, razor & tie, razor and tie, Review, Sinestra, Sinestra Studios, Starset, Transmissions

There is no better way to kick off an album review than listening to an artist’s album on continuous play as you write, especially when the artist is one of your most revered bands. Welcome to Starset, a Cinematic Rock band from Columbus, Ohio that has dedicated their music careers to smashing earholes and opening up gateways to the complex and spectacular. Starset created a fictional universe of music where members of “The Starset Society” are responsible for delivering “The Message” through Demonstrations of love, loyalty, humanity, and compassion. There is a lot of insight on love, life, and loss within Starsets new album Vessels.

With the Transmissions era ending, Starset enlightened our minds to another “dimension”, having released four songs to satiate our curiosity before its official release date on January 20, 2017 (Monster, Back to The Earth, Ricochet and Satellite). Vessels is an hour+ album dedicated to the purpose of searching for love and finding purity within yourself and those you see in the light that is unabridged to the human eye. Each song is infused with an increased (but appropriate) amount of aggression and emotional context. “Satellite” is an uppercut of a track, with a moody, sinister, and ambient intro entitled “The Order”, a complete opposite introduction to Transmissions opening track “First Light”. “Satellite” is quite possibly my favorite track out of the whole album just because of the execution and formality of the song. It sets an unprecedented tone for the entire album ahead and focuses on the beauty of darkness, sorrow, and triumph that every person goes through within their own humanity.

Listeners can truly empathize with the deep rooted and open to interpretation messages within the music of Vessels. There is no better or worse song, as all the tracks carry the same resonance. Songs such as “Die For You”, “Gravity of You”, “Last To Fall”, “Monster” and the masterful “Everglow” all bring forth the thematic inquiry “What do I have to do to find you, love you, preserve you?” Then boom! you hit songs like “Ricochet”, “Back To The Earth”, “Telepathic”, “Last to Fall” where they just signify how much everything is over and asking yourself the awful question, “Why?”. This album tugs on heartstrings in such a specific fashion. Transmissions had its moments with “Rise and Fall”, “My Demons”, “Halo” and my personal favorite “Dark on Me”, but these pieces are all custom universes that Dustin Bates and company have created to envelop the human spirit. Vessels feels like the main course of beautiful tragedies that Transmissions aspired to be, but just wasn’t quite there. We begin to see how elegantly crafted that album was, which now places more emphasis on the concept of the sophomore album.

Vessels maintains the enigmatic sound that is Starset, The band has created a genre of music that is relevant to the time, with masterful production through the best music technology available today. The theatrical and catchy songs on Vessels places you in a sort of trance, challenging your imagination and puts life situations into perspective. Starset bravely breaks the barrier of everyday music and do so impressively. Tastefully melancholy, hopeful, and uplifting all at the same time, Vessels is a production which carries its listener away from their comfort zone in any and all regard. We all wish Starset much more success in the future of their music and hope that their “Message” falls on many more ears eager for something that sets itself apart from the rest.

Enclosed with this review are photos taken from Starset on their New York Comic-Con demonstration at Highline Ballroom in October 2016 as well as the music video for Monster and the lyric music video for Ricochet.