Band:	Solar Temple
Album:	The Great Star Above Provides
Style:	Atmospheric black metal
Release date:	April 2023

01. I
02. II
03. III
04. IV

The Great Star Above Provides us with an hour of mesmerizing atmosphere. An enjoyable, hypnotic journey for some; an exercise in attention retention for others.

The Great Star Above Provides is the second full-length release of Dutch duo Solar Temple. This album was entirely live-recorded at the Roadburn Festival and aired for the first time at the festival's Redux edition during the Covid pandemic. Thus, there is no live audience to cheer them on, but we do get a video displaying their impressive and lengthy performance.

The musicians are clearly very capable, and the music video displays the duo's multidexterity quite well. Whereas "O" maintains the seemingly endless fuzzy riffing, singing in a translucent voice all the while, "M" exemplifies impressive coordination as he uses his hands to supply accompanying guitar, while his feet play the drums simultaneously.

Solar Temple are labeled here on Metal Storm as "atmospheric black metal", which doesn't quite do their music justice. Other than some tremolo-picking, there's actually not much black about Solar Temple's style. There's no blast-beat drumming, no raspy vocals. Instead, flowery, psychedelic melodies take center-stage, while a soft voice drenched in reverb echoes across the spacey sonicscape. Despite its runtime of one hour, The Great Star Above Provides showcases barely any variation. Each of the four songs sticks to one riff and repeats that for the next quarter hour. It's a style very reminiscent of stoner and post rock, using simple, repetitive musicianship to lull the listener into a pleasant trance. This atmospheric style is effective in this sense, but might not be to everyone's liking.

Being myself a fan of hooks and groovy melodies to latch onto, I personally would've appreciated more variety in the songwriting. Or at least cutting down on the excessive song lengths. 20 minutes is far too long to incessantly repeat a single riff, no matter how good that riff is. Nine minutes before the end of the album, a shift does occur, however. "O" sits down on the floor and picks up two drum sticks. As a distorted guitar note continues to drone on in the background, both musicians thud away at the percussion. Yet even this creative bit drags on far longer than it needs to, ending the album with a feeling of confusion rather than satisfaction.

In conclusion, Solar Temple are able to achieve what they clearly set out to perform: the perfect soundtrack for a psychedelic trip through space. Listeners who like lengthy, one-dimensional droning will feel comfortable in the endless expanses, while other listeners will feel another characteristic of the cosmos: emptiness.