Kardashev is a deathcore & deathgaze band from Tempe, Arizona consisting of drummer The Great Filter, bassist Alex Rieth, guitarist Nico Mirolla & frontman Mark Garrett. Introducing themselves a decade ago off their full-length debut Peripety, they returned in 2022 by signing with Metal Blade Records for their sophomore effort Liminal Rite putting a bigger emphasis on post-metal. However, they’re linking back up for their 3rd studio LP & the 2nd since Metal Blade brought them onto the label.

“A Precipice. A Door” explores themes of loss, memory & the search for identity in a post-apocalyptic setting to kick off their sophomore effort under the high profile indie label whereas “Reunion” fuses deathcore, post-metal, post-rock, shoegaze, progressive metal, technical death metal & doomgaze singing about responsibility & the ethics of creation.

The final single “Seed of Night” works in elements of progressive metal, post-metal shoegaze, post-rock, deathcore reclaiming all what is gone from their perspective leading into “Speak Silence” featuring Genital Shame brings in these clean vocals at the start ahead of the breakdown asking what came before the sounds of silence did leading into “Truth to Form” sings about finding identity & morality during the human experience.

“Edge of Forever” & “We Could Fold the Stars” featuring Pawel J.J. Przybysz starts the final portion of Alunea by taking Kardashev’s ability to create massively soaring moments & crank them all the way up to 11 that is until the closing track “Below Sun & Soil” found them challenged to keep the spirit of the 2012 track “Pillars of Creation’s” spacey emptiness & turn it into a story closer humanizing it’s characters & indulgers alike

A direct sequel to the events of The Almanac & picks up right where the song “Beyond Sun & Moon” leaves off, Alunea tells the story of the main character from The Almanac meeting a being created in the song “Continuum” from Excipio that becomes a philosophical examination of where responsibility & duty intersect. Kardashev doesn’t explicitly attempt to answer those questions, yet rather examine them deeply.

Score: 4/5

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