Aster Tracks

Love them or hate them; The Word Alive are alternative metal titans. It’s always interesting to me how metal bands like this find themselves in places where they have a huge adoring following but a mutually agreed upon inconsistent discography. Their last record, Monomania, had mixed reception for its improved sonics that were gained by sacrificing any real originality. I personally had Monomania as a contention for my album of the year but saw it place quite low. Though I will say upon a revisit I did find some tracks to be pretty enjoyable but also not really anything I’m eager to go back to. We open the record on “The Word Alive is Dead,” a song that sees a gradual build in heat and pretty standard lyrics welcoming the listeners to the record. I feel like I should be against this in theory but honestly I welcome meta ideas especially in a genre like alternative metal, which at its best isn’t taking itself too seriously. In practice, however, I find this track in particular to be qui...

Last year I wrote about exciting!!excellent!! and how, at my first show ever in Portland, I was made to feel at home in a strange city. In the year following I have seen, time and time again, that Jasmine Mcelroy is a force both on DIY spaces online and the real, tangible music scene in Portland as a whole. I waited all year and now her debut album, you will watch me die is finally here. Watch me die as a piece of music truly feels like the soundtrack to a GameBoy game that never existed in a coherent way, something I don’t think was true of any of her EPs under the exciting!!excellent!! name. Opening track “vinyl fantasy x-2” sounds just like an RPG start screen and paints a complete image complete with a breezing wind and other little set dressings which my mind’s eye can see crystal clear. This keeps going on the entire project throughout; “the spirit of beach justice failed to notice you” is either the saddest cutscene or the most slap-in-your-face Game Over screen you have ever se...

Disclaimer: The following is a re-post from earlier this year. This review was originally posted alongside three others but, in the time, since posting those reviews allegations of sexual assault have emerged about a musician, I gave a lot of praise to. I ask that you always believe victims and give your support to artists who work hard and manage to maintain being an unharmful person. Rebecca Black has finally, after a twelve-year career, dropped her debut full length record. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you about how a pretty insidious LA record label picked up the Irvine, CA native as a child and released “Friday,” which was widely seen as a joke at the time, but Rebecca has taken that tie to a childhood meme and used the experience gained to become a lesbian pop icon. She even re-released the track in question in 2021 with an all-star cast of hyper pop features and production. All this to say; she’s earned her fucking stripes and on Let Her Burn she lets out her...

Over the years Flint, MI’s Craig Owens has been frontman of many bands and projects and lent features to a lot of artists as well. Now, on his solo Velocity records debut, he’s celebrating that career with Volume 1. On Volume 1 Craig is taking songs from his various past records and reimagining them as piano or acoustic ballads. I myself have been listening to Craig’s music since I was about thirteen or fourteen and wanted to look at these new versions of the tracks with a critical eye as well as walk you down the lane of my own memories in the same way he does by sharing what comes to mind from my own life when I listen to each and every one of these. We of course open with the classic; the first single to this project was Chiodos’ “Baby, You Wouldn’t Last a Minute on the Creek,” their best-known song and maybe Craig’s as well. To be honest there isn’t much to analyze on this new recording, it’s the original played on a piano, you and I both knew it would be on a record like this and...

Listening to punk you expect ferocity, the problem arises when it's not coming from a real place. Phoebe of Lambrini Girls is sometimes not even singing or screaming, most of the time they’re just popping off about things they’re passionate about standing against. This is especially true of “Terf Wars,” where they turn lyrics against the constant slamming of the trans community online into a performance that sounds so off the cuff and yet eloquent in a way that contrasts its subject matter. When they aren’t talking about terfs though, it’s usually bad men. On “Boys in the Band” we’re tackling an issue that seems to be eating the alternative scene alive; men abusing their power. To lead this EP off with that is a power move. Lambrini Girls don’t really break new ground on You’re Welcome sonically but in punk you don’t necessarily have to. To me a good punk record in 2023 is one that delivers its politics in a clear cut way behind a composition that demonstrates a love and understan...

Olsoul is a band from Lowell, MA, in proximity to my hometown's local scene and they’re on one of my favorite record labels right now. Their lyrics are also truly poetic and their vocalist, Jessica Hall, knows it. The presentation Jessica gives to each melody is somber, backed by an emo and dream rock instrumental that borders on symphony. “High on Yourself” is an example of a band really playing to their own strengths as it has such a range of emotion that goes through so many phases in just four minutes. That’s another thing I’ve really come to admire about Oldsoul; playing to your strengths also means knowing when to shift gears. Knowing when to get more aggressive, start incorporating varied instruments, all of this can be found just on track one. There are also more subtle sprinklings of this on songs like “Leave Them Standing,” where we get into some synths or “Designated Driver,” that approaches the guitar structure in a different way than the rest of the record. Knowing ho...

The journey through my back log continues with the fourth record by this St. Louis hyperpop duo. Angel and Lulu Prost have been on a non-stop run releasing album after album, year after year from 2020 on. Speed Run however is my introduction to Frost Children and it's a pretty strong one. I like how these two manage to write songs that are so low key while maintaining the excitement of hyperpop. On Speed Run the siblings manage to do an excellent job managing momentum. Take “Coup” for example, which starts off ballad-like in its first verse, takes you to the club with an entrancing hook and then takes you into the space between the two later on. “Flatline” is another great showing of this where it's sort of written to be ravey and entertaining. Also, I’m a bitch that loves a good transition, clearly, and this album is packed full of them. The in between of every song always find ways to close in on themselves. You listen to a song, it extends a bit, Yoshi shows up and before y...

If you follow my writing, you obviously know music is obviously a big passion for me. For a while now however I’ve been looking for an entry point to write about another big passion of mine. Granted, I’m four months late game on this record but hey, at least I’m within the calendar year! If you are here from the music side, Cardfight Vanguard is a trading card game originally by Akira Ito and published by Bushiroad. I’ve played this game for a little over a decade, competitively since 2014. If you’re here from the Vanguard side, hello! My name is Claudia Santos, and this is AsterTracks, a music blog where I review music, mostly by smaller artists. I have also, after a year removed due to a cross country move, recently re-entered the competitive scene by going undefeated in my local shop challenge playing Messiah . To coincide with the latest arc in the Vanguard anime Bushiroad has put together this album of music used in the show and though, like I said above, we are four months late ...

California’s Hail the Sun is a band I’ve had a lot of admiration for and sort of my last guard in the swancore scene. From their technical prowess, involvement in the community and overall energy they were an easy band to follow. However, like most bands in the genre, things started to fall apart for me in 2021’s New Age Filth. On that record Hail the Sun showed that they were sort of at a progressive stand still and that they were starting to gain some toxicity in their fan base. Nevertheless, I was excited for a new record, I think my faith was misplaced. Something that strikes me right away, as always, is that Hail the Sun is a band that can play. The issue is I feel like playing is all they’ve done for six albums now. This band absolutely coasts on their ability to play fast and its sort of gotten old, I want to see them write a song worth that talent. They skirt along that again and again on this record; songs like “Tunnel Vision Alibi” have some cool hooks and a compelling breakd...