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Starchaser: Into The Great Unknown
Starchaser - Into The Great Unknown Album Art

Starchaser: Into The Great Unknown

Heavy Power Metal
3.5/5.0

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Frontiers Music
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 13.11.2024 | Released: 15.11.2024

As a recap, arriving from Sweden in 2021, Starchaser is the brainchild of former Tad Morose guitarist Kenneth Jonsson, who began the work as a solo project. Wherein it quickly morphed into a full band featuring vocalist Ulrich Carlsson (Shaggy, ex-M.ILL.ION), bassist Örjan Josefsson (Cibola Junction), drummer Johan Kulberg (Wolf, Therion, Hammerfall), and keyboardist Kay Backlund (Lions Share, Nils Patrik Johansson, Impera). Their self-titled debut album dropped in the Spring of 2022. Two years on, and with a stable crew, Jonsson and Starchaser return with their sophomore effort, Into The Great Unknown. Jonsson said this about the new album.

Starchaser - Click For Larger Image

Starchaser

"Ulrich and I worked in close collaboration, pushing each other to new extremes and elevating the band's performance to shredding new levels. Our combined effort has forged the song writing into something truly formidable ... Örjan, Johan, Eric and Kay also played crucial roles, contributing their talents to make this album a powerful force ... We're stoked for you to crank it up and hope it hits as hard as our first."


Essentially, Into The Great Unknown is merely Starchaser part two. The similarities between the two albums are so predictable to be both intentional and uncanny. The Starchaser formula remains the same: fast, heavy, and dense power metal driven by thick riffage, an equally thick and thumping rhythm section, with all things leading to a rabid Jonsson guitar solo. Backlund's keyboard exist only to make the song arrangements in more dense and bombastic. Additionally, as with the previous album, vocalist Ulrich Carlsson is nearly smothered by the song density and heaviness. The result, to these ears, is one long same song divided into 12 parts. With my favorite parts being three: the title track, The Nightmare King, and the closing instrumental Far From. Enough said. Check out the vids and support the band.

If like your power metal fast, heavy, bombastic, and unrelenting (or face-melting as guitarist Kenneth Jonsson describes it) with little variation, you will enjoy Starchaser and their second album, Into the Great Unknown.


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The Take Away

All said, if like your power metal fast, heavy, bombastic, and unrelenting with little variation, you will enjoy Starchaser and their second album, Into the Great Unknown.

Support the artist, click the link below to buy the album at Amazon (US site) in your favorite format.

Purchase Starchaser - Into The Great Unknown at Amazon
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