Noisy, loud, and sprawling guitar rock is really reaching its apex these days with some accomplished bands putting out fantastic records. Add another possibility to the pile, but closer to the top, please. Stella Luna's first release, "Stargazer" is a four song EP meant as a teaser for their full-length due later this year. Their sound is primarily space rock, with breathy male and female vocals teasing each other over the distortion-drenched guitars, meaty bass, extraterrestrial synths and echoed eerie drumming. This music is horribly affecting, stirring, and compelling. I once read an article that postulated on the idea that the goal of movie trailers was actually to make you not want to see the film in question. Therefore, if a trailer succeeds, you should want to stay away at all costs. If that's the goal of an EP like this one - to make me want to avoid the full-length - it fails miserably. If you resist, Stella Luna attacks you at your brain stem, attaching and living there for a time until you relent. 'Change' opens the EP quietly, building noise until the wall of sound floods the speakers, then haunts with the repeating chorus ("Funny how some things never change/chaaaange/chaaaange"). The melody then feeds right into the EP's title track, featuring swirls and wooshes of sound with Susan Hanson's faded vocals. On 'Antares', the synths are more prevalent, at least until the chorus, with a chiming guitar line that just kills. 'A Bridge to Nowhere', the EP's closer, is not as strong a song, as it strikes with its pure noise, but it adds some diversity to the overall composition. A fine debut from a promising band to expect greater things from.
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