Review by Vladimir on April 29, 2023.

It’s time for something that’s doomy and gloomy, but equally epic. That’s right, I am now in the doom metal territory. The topic I’ll be focusing on today is the band DiGelsomina from the US, which will be releasing their debut album Sic Itur Ad Astra as an independent release on June 2nd. The band is led by Andy DiGelsomina (Lyraka) and Robert Lowe (formerly of Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus), both contributing their talent to craft a new blade.

'Mahanaim' opens up with a slow bass riff which is quickly followed by the guitars and drums, while the epic singing vocals also join the ride of doom. I expected the song to be keeping the constant tempo from beginning to end, but I was quite surprised that it speeds up on the later half of the song before returning to the original. During the second track 'Harbinger Of Doom', the epic galloping rhythm is the strongest game here, which is also backed up by some nice guitar melodies and solos. I was a bit weirded out by some of “sleazy rock” elements on the third track 'Otherwordly' which also featured some hand claps during interludes. The fourth track 'Winternacht' has some piano playing and unusual soloing in the beginning, which I think was meant to resonate some sort of eeriness to it, but I was mostly confused rather than intimidated. Despite this instance of weirdness, the song’s majority is heavy guitar riffs, which become a bit of a mixed bag when the tempo changes or when riffs transition from one section to another since. I don’t know if this was meant to be some sort of progressive song arrangement or not, but the riffs here don’t feel like they belong to the same song, they are more or less rather randomly placed without any sense of continuity. To be honest, the song’s last section which is just drumming and some weird soloing, later switching to that eerie piano again, had me scratching my head out of complete confusion, which brought me to conclusion that the album could have definitely done without this song, but perhaps we could all agree that the song wouldn’t have been so bad if there was a bit more work and thought put into the riff arrangements by also ditching those weird solos. Luckily the following song 'Shadows And Mirrors' fixes it up a bit, although it still has some unbalanced riff arrangement but it’s nowhere nearly as bad or confusing as the previous song. When it comes to the overall musical output, the album doesn’t really excel all too much, but it does contain some pretty good moments worthy of attention, especially the vocal performance of Robert Lowe. The album has some conceptual topics ranging from Andy’s own fantasy ideas, as well as an homage to Lovecraft, Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism, Richard Wagner's Day and Night symbolic dichotomy (from Tristan und Isolde). The particular topic regarding Andy’s own fantasy is partially presented on the album’s cover art with a dragon/wyvern and a metal bikini clad female figure that reminded me of Red Sonja, but is blonde instead of redhaired. One thing that really had me questioning is whether the female figure displayed on the cover art is actually Andy DiGelsomina’s wife Cheryl, because I see some facial resemblance and she is also blonde. Production-wise, the sound is a bit thin for a music that should really be much heavier and stronger. The guitar tone and drums sound a bit dry, although the vocals on the other hand are completely fine.

The album in its entirety is extremely solid but overall, it’s not a big time or energy consumer, despite that one track which was lacking a good creative direction. I would recommend this album only for those who are fans of both Andy and Robert’s previous works in other bands, and I suggest that you approach this album with some very low to mid expectations. 

Rating: 7 out of 10

Review by Vladimir on April 29, 2023.

It’s time for something that’s doomy and gloomy, but equally epic. That’s right, I am now in the doom metal territory. The topic I’ll be focusing on today is the band DiGelsomina from the US, which will be releasing their debut album Sic Itur Ad Astra as an independent release on June 2nd. The band is led by Andy DiGelsomina (Lyraka) and Robert Lowe (formerly of Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus), both contributing their talent to craft a new blade.

'Mahanaim' opens up with a slow bass riff which is quickly followed by the guitars and drums, while the epic singing vocals also join the ride of doom. I expected the song to be keeping the constant tempo from beginning to end, but I was quite surprised that it speeds up on the later half of the song before returning to the original. During the second track 'Harbinger Of Doom', the epic galloping rhythm is the strongest game here, which is also backed up by some nice guitar melodies and solos. I was a bit weirded out by some of “sleazy rock” elements on the third track 'Otherwordly' which also featured some hand claps during interludes. The fourth track 'Winternacht' has some piano playing and unusual soloing in the beginning, which I think was meant to resonate some sort of eeriness to it, but I was mostly confused rather than intimidated. Despite this instance of weirdness, the song’s majority is heavy guitar riffs, which become a bit of a mixed bag when the tempo changes or when riffs transition from one section to another since. I don’t know if this was meant to be some sort of progressive song arrangement or not, but the riffs here don’t feel like they belong to the same song, they are more or less rather randomly placed without any sense of continuity. To be honest, the song’s last section which is just drumming and some weird soloing, later switching to that eerie piano again, had me scratching my head out of complete confusion, which brought me to conclusion that the album could have definitely done without this song, but perhaps we could all agree that the song wouldn’t have been so bad if there was a bit more work and thought put into the riff arrangements by also ditching those weird solos. Luckily the following song 'Shadows And Mirrors' fixes it up a bit, although it still has some unbalanced riff arrangement but it’s nowhere nearly as bad or confusing as the previous song. When it comes to the overall musical output, the album doesn’t really excel all too much, but it does contain some pretty good moments worthy of attention, especially the vocal performance of Robert Lowe. The album has some conceptual topics ranging from Andy’s own fantasy ideas, as well as an homage to Lovecraft, Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism, Richard Wagner's Day and Night symbolic dichotomy (from Tristan und Isolde). The particular topic regarding Andy’s own fantasy is partially presented on the album’s cover art with a dragon/wyvern and a metal bikini clad female figure that reminded me of Red Sonja, but is blonde instead of redhaired. One thing that really had me questioning is whether the female figure displayed on the cover art is actually Andy DiGelsomina’s wife Cheryl, because I see some facial resemblance and she is also blonde. Production-wise, the sound is a bit thin for a music that should really be much heavier and stronger. The guitar tone and drums sound a bit dry, although the vocals on the other hand are completely fine.

The album in its entirety is extremely solid but overall, it’s not a big time or energy consumer, despite that one track which was lacking a good creative direction. I would recommend this album only for those who are fans of both Andy and Robert’s previous works in other bands, and I suggest that you approach this album with some very low to mid expectations. 

Rating: 7 out of 10

Review by Vladimir on April 29, 2023.

It’s time for something that’s doomy and gloomy, but equally epic. That’s right, I am now in the doom metal territory. The topic I’ll be focusing on today is the band DiGelsomina from the US, which will be releasing their debut album Sic Itur Ad Astra as an independent release on June 2nd. The band is led by Andy DiGelsomina (Lyraka) and Robert Lowe (formerly of Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus), both contributing their talent to craft a new blade.

'Mahanaim' opens up with a slow bass riff which is quickly followed by the guitars and drums, while the epic singing vocals also join the ride of doom. I expected the song to be keeping the constant tempo from beginning to end, but I was quite surprised that it speeds up on the later half of the song before returning to the original. During the second track 'Harbinger Of Doom', the epic galloping rhythm is the strongest game here, which is also backed up by some nice guitar melodies and solos. I was a bit weirded out by some of “sleazy rock” elements on the third track 'Otherwordly' which also featured some hand claps during interludes. The fourth track 'Winternacht' has some piano playing and unusual soloing in the beginning, which I think was meant to resonate some sort of eeriness to it, but I was mostly confused rather than intimidated. Despite this instance of weirdness, the song’s majority is heavy guitar riffs, which become a bit of a mixed bag when the tempo changes or when riffs transition from one section to another since. I don’t know if this was meant to be some sort of progressive song arrangement or not, but the riffs here don’t feel like they belong to the same song, they are more or less rather randomly placed without any sense of continuity. To be honest, the song’s last section which is just drumming and some weird soloing, later switching to that eerie piano again, had me scratching my head out of complete confusion, which brought me to conclusion that the album could have definitely done without this song, but perhaps we could all agree that the song wouldn’t have been so bad if there was a bit more work and thought put into the riff arrangements by also ditching those weird solos. Luckily the following song 'Shadows And Mirrors' fixes it up a bit, although it still has some unbalanced riff arrangement but it’s nowhere nearly as bad or confusing as the previous song. When it comes to the overall musical output, the album doesn’t really excel all too much, but it does contain some pretty good moments worthy of attention, especially the vocal performance of Robert Lowe. The album has some conceptual topics ranging from Andy’s own fantasy ideas, as well as an homage to Lovecraft, Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism, Richard Wagner's Day and Night symbolic dichotomy (from Tristan und Isolde). The particular topic regarding Andy’s own fantasy is partially presented on the album’s cover art with a dragon/wyvern and a metal bikini clad female figure that reminded me of Red Sonja, but is blonde instead of redhaired. One thing that really had me questioning is whether the female figure displayed on the cover art is actually Andy DiGelsomina’s wife Cheryl, because I see some facial resemblance and she is also blonde. Production-wise, the sound is a bit thin for a music that should really be much heavier and stronger. The guitar tone and drums sound a bit dry, although the vocals on the other hand are completely fine.

The album in its entirety is extremely solid but overall, it’s not a big time or energy consumer, despite that one track which was lacking a good creative direction. I would recommend this album only for those who are fans of both Andy and Robert’s previous works in other bands, and I suggest that you approach this album with some very low to mid expectations. 

Rating: 7 out of 10

Review by Lawrence Stillman on October 9, 2024.

18 years after their formation, Another Dimension finally releases their debut full-length. Take one look at the sole founding member left in this album line-up, and you can already guess who they will take their influence from...

Surprisingly, this doesn't feel like an Intestine Baalism worship album like Baa-Rhythm did; instead, they took the IB influences and combined them with the thrashy elements from one of the bands that one of the members is affiliated with, Terror Squad, and the overly melodic rhythms that appeared in "Slaughter Of The Soul". As a result, this album is more melodic and thrashy than any IB album, and in exchange, a good chunk of the brutality that IB is known for is lost. However, it is still very aggressive and brutal for a melodic death metal album (which is not a high bar), and being able to fill my fix for a more outside-the-norm melodic death metal experience is always welcome. Anything that can take me away from the Gothenburg-core bullshit is always welcome.

The songs themselves are not that complex or unique compared to the rest of the genre. While some of the songs took a more Gothenburg approach to songwriting (like the ones that immediately start with a verse instead of an intro), the rest did all their intros in various different ways, which made the songs even more distinguishable. For example, the last track of the album, 'Under The Spell', opens with a pretty standard riff, but they slow down and then build up to an epic riff with a very drawn-out shriek laid on top. It is very epic, and it reminds me of Gekiai no Yobigoe from ICDD's second album. I love sections like this, so I was ecstatic when another band put their own spin on this underrated trope. It was a nice break from all the melodic death metal bands that try to make it as radio-friendly as possible, given how they write their songs as if their audiences have absolutely zero attention span. What's next? Melodic death metal songs that are written to be as short as grindcore?

Musically, the guitars here are very raw and have the typical Swedeath HM2 buzzsaw tone to them, just way less dominating. And with it, the vocals now have the biggest presence in the mix, being very forward. It constantly switches from blackened thrash vocals like Sabbat or Venom to groove metal roars like later Fear Factory or the typical death growls found on Intestine Baalism and OSDM releases. The constant vocal swapping does make it very entertaining. The drums here also had a very raw sound, which also meant that the hi-hat and ride cymbals were too low in the mix, so it was indeed not a good listen for me. The bass is buried like usual, just like on any album with raw production. Although I have to admit that the raw production does give it a 90s feel that made the album much better than if it had been mixed in the same way that 2000s melodic death metal did, like Arch Enemy after Johan left (which sucks big time since they are too polished without a good reason).

While it is not Intestine Baalism, it is still a very good melodic death metal record if you want something like At The Gates if they bothered to write actually good songs that don't try to dumb down their sound for normies. I hope this band isn't a one-hit wonder that dissolves after an album comes out.

Highlights: 'Immortal Black Chaos', 'Hellstorm', 'Under The Spell'

Rating: 9.2 out of 10