astra is not only the name of a famous beer from hamburg, it is also the name of a prog rock band from the united states, which i managed to overlook in the past. when i listen to "the black chord" now, i cannot say how this happened. these guys are that good. i stumbled upon them via a video link over at youtube. i don't know what i was listening to in the first place but i saw the thumbnail with the cover art in the side bar and it looked appealing.
i clicked it and before the first song "cocoon" ended, i knew that i had to have a hard copy in my possession. after i informed myself of the release date, label and vinyl versions, i came to the conclusion to not waste any time. rise above released this already four years ago and due to the reputation of the label i figured it might be difficult to still get a copy from a mailorder. furthermore i fell in love with the splattered brown vinyl edition of the first press and all these factors together seemed like i was doomed to drop some serious cash.
in the end it wasn't that hard to get my desired copy. i found a few german d.i.y. stoner/doom metal shops like white dwarf that still carried second press copies and finally one, cyclone empire, that had one of the brown splatter copies to offer. i bought it via their discogs account but if i had known that they had their own mailorder metal-recycler.de, i would have gotten the record for one euro less. ok, i think i'll survive this.
the whole album is the shit. i hear some between the buried and me and cynic influences, especially in those crazy, quirky synth-laden prog parts. then they have these really nice and easy-going seventies rock parts with flutes and all that topped with richard vaughan's lovely voice make "the black chord" a beast which sinks its claws into you to not ever let go. check it out here. the presentation is hot too. the gatefold comes with an integrated booklet with pictures of each band member and houses this nice 180gr brown splatter beauty. excellent! 500 copies made. rise above records. 2012.