At last, something that makes sense… Australia’s very own STARGAZER managed to impress with their split CD with INVOCATION some years ago, but after that, and until this year (2005), no news at all from this band (even their website moved), to the point I thought STARGAZER capsized for good. Fortunately, here is the time of their return, with a fantastic album. If “Harbringer” was good enough, you better forget it now, because “The Scream…” presents the REAL stuff, and the band at their full potential. First, the production does well this time to maximize the deadly effect of the STARGAZER music. It was precisely the point that hampered the full impact of the STARGAZER of old, now the problem is fortunately solved! Regarding the music: perfect is the right word to describe it. Like Frank said in his “Harbringer” review, these guys play from the heart, even if they deliver a rather complex form of Death Metal. I read comparisons with reputed outfits like ATHEIST and CYNIC, but it is only partially true. STARGAZER’s music is a little less adventurous and leaves room for extreme brutality. Add to this that the two musicians forming STARGAZER are not here to show their “considerable” abilities like so many others do. The result breaks down the overall mediocrity that plagues this scene nowadays with an overdose of class and remarkable inspiration. Some jazzy overtones could be heard here and there, the bass parts in particular are especially adventurous in that regard, some passages evokes progressive music, but “The Scream…” is first and foremost a very imaginative Death Metal record. Despite the complexity of the music, it never occurs that the listener is left clueless of what it is going on, each track has a clearly definite thread, easy to follow. If the lyrical and visual STARGAZER inspirations come from the most abstract aspects of the Asiatic religions, the comparison with let’s say CYNIC stops there. No ethereal and angelic choirs, no “spacey” ambiances (well, except for an enigmatic short instrumental, ‘Tongues’, which offers a relaxing moment amidst a cyclone of insanity), only a frantic deluge of tortured riffs like some warped MORBID ANGEL ones. No wonder that the two STARGAZER musicians (The Great Righteous Destroyer and The Serpent Inquisitor, yeah, even the pseudonyms are cool as Hell!) are involved in some other class Australian bands like MARTIRE and CAULDRON BLACK RAM — to cite only two of them – because their talent is so huge that it can’t be constrained even by a class act like STARGAZER. “The Scream…” is a miraculous album and I strongly suggest you don’t ignore it any longer, unless you want to make fools of yourselves. Check their website at: www.stargazer.hm, some mp3 are displayed. An album that tore my mind…