Scardust – Souls

How does one judge an album? How does one put a rating on an experience? I’ve been writing music reviews for nearly a decade and I never felt compelled to ask these questions as much as I have while listening to Scardust‘s new album, “Souls“. All the boxes I could tick seem irrelevant. Technical mastery? Check! Interesting concepts? Check? Emotional delivery! Check! Hooks and dopamine shots? Check! What is the relavance of all this?

There’s always a list of things to get right in order to make good music, to have a complete “product”. But beyond all those, Scardust’s music is an experience. And just like any real life experience, it’s hard to contain it within boundaries. Crushing even the conventions of the unconventional, this band stands for passion, uniqueness, and complete freedom in artistic expression! It’s a snapshot of these musicians’ Souls (hehe), captured and put on record.

So where to pick it up? Well, let’s start with how it falls in the context of their previous work. The album opener, ‘Long Forgotten Song’, which is not a long forgotten song, starts out by reminding of the past. Subtle nostalgia bait referencing their previous work, both in lyrics and composition, looks at their past through a reflective lens, as if speaking to the listener directly and connecting through a shared story. The song feels real, like returning to your own life after being immersed in the escapism of a movie or a song. And it’s strange to get this emotion as the starting point to an album. More often, I find it at the end. But this sets up the ideal mood we need to find ourselves in, in order to receive what is to come. It’s like picking up a book and re-reading the end of the previous chapter you had just completed, in order to make sense of what comes next. Similarly, “Souls” is connected to the context that brought it into being, and having the art itself reflecting this fact, makes it feel as real as life itself. From there, we move into a series of stories wrapped in the aesthetics of fantasy, but deeply rooted in reality.

Scardust – My Haven

Track #2, ‘My Haven’ haven shoots you into hyperactive awesomeness, soaring through the sky like a supersonic power anthem. ‘RIP’, takes a similar level of energy, while shifting the emotional tone to an inner struggle, where sadness, anger, and disappointment clash with honesty, acceptance, and deep wisdom. From there, ‘Dazzling Darkness’ and ‘Unreachable’ soften the tone and slow down the tempo. They’re Disney ballads in their aesthetics, but they still have quite a lot of madness when it comes to the technical details and subtleties beneath the princessy surface. The blending of multiple solo sections paired with an entire orchestra and choir in ‘Unreachable’, must be the most insane ensemble of different elements, coherently coming together, that I’ve ever heard. It’s symphonic, progressive, folky and catchy, all at the same time.

Scardust – Dazzling Darkness

By the time track #5 has come to pass we’ve had everything and the kitchen sink thrown at us in terms of emotional variety, solos on all possible instruments, complex mathematical rhythmic structures, insanely catchy choruses and themes, and superb layering of choir and orchestra. But it all came in digestible doses. All songs were held under the 5-minute mark and followed the standard structure of verses, choruses, and a bridge section. Single material, if you will… In proper prog nerd fashion, this is a problem that needs to be addressed.

The string section and choir interlude ‘End of the World’, divides the album into two parts. On one side, we have the bangers I’ve already been talking about. But beyond the veil of orchestral fluff, a realm of sorrow and pain resides. ‘Searing Echoes’ is a 7-minute piece singing the woes of tragedy. It is easily Scardust’s most dramatic musical offering so far. The background of choir and orchestra is tense, pressing and ominous. Violinist Ally Storch‘s guest performance steps out of the pretty orchestral territory we’ve seen so far, to give us a shocking, screechy, and maddening display of emotion unlike anything I’ve heard pulled out of a violin. It truly fits the song like a glove. But I don’t think Scardust ever wrote a song that is entirely dark. Even with this one, fragments of hope crack through the darkness, aiming for brighter days to come. Which brings us to… ‘Touch of Life’.

Scardust – RIP

The magnum opus that finalizes the album is a 3-part conceptual piece, tinkering with the story of Pygmalion from Greek mythology. The contrast of the switch between the pressing mood of ‘Searing Echoes, and the storytelling aesthetics opening up this final adventure, is one of the most refreshing moments on the entire album… it feels like waking up from a deep slumber and seeing clear again. All is nice in fairytale land for the first 2 parts, ‘In Your Eyes’ and ‘Dance of Creation’. But the happily-ever-after so naively portrayed by the original myth, is swapped for a darker, more realistic ending, which ponders on the illusion of perfection and the never ending cycle of improvement. And what better guest performer could step in to portray Pygmalion’s paradoxical condition, other than Haken‘s legendary singer, Ross Jennings? His delivery on this song is as eclectic and elegant as Haken’s always been, but at the same time as wild and dramatic as Scardust’s music demands. Clashing with a choir narrator and with the eternally omnipotent vocal powerhouse that is Noa Gruman, he steps in to complete one of the most impressive, thought-provoking, and inspiring conceptual pieces I’ve ever heard in prog metal. And as the album nears its end, the lyrics step out of the story and address the listener once more, this time compelling us to look within, at our own”Souls”.

Scardust – Unreachable

From crazy solos to catchy moments and striking lyrical lines, there is more happening in this album than I could possibly shout out within a reasonable length of text (cough cough ‘Dance of Creation’ voice solo). But I will say that the artistic coherence of their compositional choices is so sublime that nothing feels like “too much”. No matter how many elements come together, the central theme is always catchy, and the final artistic image is clear. So if you don’t have the sweet tooth towards progressive complexity to pick up on all the details, then I strongly recommend you to shut your brain off, and listen with your Soul instead. You won’t be disappointed.

Track List:

1. Long Forgotten Song (04:20)
2. My Haven (03:17)
3. RIP (03:40)
4. Dazzling Darkness (02:36)
5. Unreachable (04:30)
6. End of the World (02:19)
7. Searing Echoes (07:43)
8. Touch of Life I – In Your Eyes (02:40)
9. Touch of Life II – Dance of Creation (03:16)
10. Touch of Life III – King of Insanity (07:17)