Starless - Hope Is Leaving You

Angry Metal Guy 60

It’s all about feeling. Catharsis, concept, creativity – these are the things that break through the molds of genre and convince me to try out music that I would ordinarily… not. Post-metal is not for me, for example – but Pelagial is a work of art. And it’s lessons like that which keep me exploring, hoping to find something new and exciting to remind me of how dangerous it can be to say things like “post-metal is not for me.” If American band Starless‘s descriptor as a post-metal put me off initially, the gorgeous album art and promo sheet for what I believe is their sophomore release, Hope Is Leaving You, left me intrigued nevertheless. It claims that this album is proof that “distorted and heaving, mood-driven sounds can intertwine with lovely and often melancholic choral harmonies.” My interest piqued, my curiosity summoned – can Starless break through my cynical outlook on its genre?

Hope Is Leaving You journeys through bleak and distressed landscapes inhabited by many post-metal, progressive, and atmospheric rock groups. Reminding me at times of recent releases from The Ocean, and others of airier acts like Gazpacho and Riverside, Starless finds a natural balance between heavy and light, always maintaining a bleak-yet-hopeful atmosphere. “Forest” illustrates this concept perfectly, a slowly-rising action that incorporates hypnotic repetitions, resonant lyrics, and a stellar delivery from guitarists Jessie Ambriz and Jon Slusher (Beak). Really, though, I shouldn’t be singling anyone out – the bass, in particular, is terrific across the album, with Alan Strathmann (Our Earth Is a Tomb) adding subtle touches of melody throughout that allows Starless to ease up on the heaviness factor at will without compromising the journey the listener is on. Drummer Quinn Curren deftly navigates these changes in pace, solidifying the album’s identity as a melancholic journey down old dusty roads and forests that are not what they once were.

Hope Is Leaving You by Starless

Whether Starless is leaning into the airier, atmospheric rock side of their sound, or the angrier one closer to post-metal, they are able to create strong, multifaceted songs that take a little and do a lot with it. “All the Winter” takes on the latter sound; it’s a dark, declarative piece that makes special use of heavy bass to create a brooding vibe that accentuates the vocalists’ gentle crooning and passionate singing. “Citizen,” on the other hand, relies more strongly on vocal melodies and simple picked guitar lines. Speaking of which, every band member contributes to the vocals on this album, resulting in multifaceted, subtle, evocative performances at the mic. On both sides of the spectrum, Hope Is Leaving You stands as an emotional, cathartic record with an easily digestible sound that nevertheless attains the necessary emotional depth to resonate.

If there is a drawback to Hope Is Leaving You, it’s that most of its strengths rest in its atmospheric, almost-ethereal qualities that pull on the heartstrings, while few of them rest on hooks in the music itself. For the most part, Starless seems content to rest in place over the course of the album, resulting in a consistent, if at times less-than-engaging listen. “Helvetii,” for example, is a solid enough track, but apart from the chorus – which is largely a repetition of the title phrase with a neat accent at the end – I have trouble recalling the song after listening. It’s far from an experience-shattering issue – “issue” might even be too strong a word – but I do wish there were a few more big moments in the music, some more memorable passages to really take advantage of the expertly-crafted atmospheres. In “Forest” and “Hunting with Fire,” for instance, Alison Chesley guests on cello, and that simple addition adds entire dimensions to their sound. More of these choices might have done wonders, and it’s a little hard not to wonder what might have been after the album’s fifty minutes are up.

Hope Is Leaving You is a beautiful, restrained album that captures a special kind of hopeful bleakness. I feel like it’s rare to find an album that does catharsis this well or a band that has such a tight command over their own sound as Starless. While I do feel that it could be more engaging at times, it’s hard not to recommend it to anyone who’s big on feeling in their metal; this one’s good, and I’m already eager to see where Starless can go from here.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-released
Websites: starlessad.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/starlessad
Releases Worldwide: September 10th, 2021

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