A Massvie Album from Tyson Dickert
A new album release from Tyson Dickert brings out a lush and vibrant approach to blending elements of heavy rock together to create an atmospheric and ambient tonality bringing some of the best attributes of alternative, indie, and cinematic rock together to build something that wraps itself around you and keeps you right where it wants to.
An Endless Voyage on the Astral Sea is a very vast record. There are layers of depth and texture that come together, letting things spread wide and creating that cinematic backbone quite quickly, utilizing elements of reverb effect to distance guitars, vocals, and bringing together something of an alternative rock and shoegaze together.
It's all quite beautifully done, and some of the most memorable stuff on this record is the guitar work. The guitars are astounding throughout this entire release and really focus on creating those atmospheres with color, edginess, heaviness, but also beautiful melody.
This is a record you easily get engulfed in and it happens right from the very first track.
The first song is called "In The Glow of Dying Embers", and really has a unique approach to it, but still has tons of that heavy alternative rock embedded in its veins, so the song is very driving but also has that distant appeal and expansive underbelly.
This is a gorgeous record, and everything about it has a certain graceful approach along with plenty of emotional Drive.
A lot of these songs feel like they come from someplace very real, and the music to these songs sets such a thick mood that you end up swimming around through the soundscape of everything.
What are the reasons this release hit me so hard is because of that blend of edginess and heaviness, along with the mood setting and the vastness of it all.
There is plenty of dark edge, but that comes from the emotion. This makes the record all the more authentic and lets that world get created while you're listening to it.
Although that first track serves as quite an amazing introduction to the record because it has some of the staples that you will hear throughout the album itself, this is not a record where you only listen to one or two tracks.
This album is an entire experience if you listen to it from start to finish.
This record serves as an amazing escape and will pull you away from wherever you are and whatever you're doing and put you in this entirely different world for a good chunk of time.
One of my favorite tracks on this record is called "The Sky Fell and Took Us With It".
This song in particular, most of those amazing elements I mentioned earlier. It brings the vast and cinematic backbone and thrashes out with a much heavier alternative rock soundscape a bit later on.
Some of these songs do that. They pull you in with that slow burn. The emotional and beautiful bill that makes the songs actually come through with that graceful tone. Then they start rocking out, and more of the aggression comes out.
This is a wonderful format and arrangement for a lot of these tracks, and really works wonders in terms of expression.
There are vocals on this record, but it's really the music that takes control. The guitars, drums, bass guitar, keys, and synths, all of that is the stuff that really becomes the engulfing factors.
At times, the vocals are there but they're a little bit buried in the mix, but other times you can hear them a little more clearly. Sometimes the vocals have great effects on them that bring a new element to the table and a new texture to the sound.
This was a very inventive and experimental record, but it did a wonderful job of taking you to this other place.
These songs feel like chapters in the artist's life. It feels like Tyson is using his music to express himself and get things out.
You can tell that this is served purely as an art form, and it feels vulnerable due to the moods, music, and honesty of the lyrics.
Perhaps it was even cathartic for Tyson to write and release.
This is definitely a tone-setting and gorgeous but still heavy record that combines so many different elements together to build an album that is made with fewer boundaries than you may be used to.
One thing I can tell you is that the songs are authentic.
You can tell there was a lot of attention to detail when it came to creating these tracks, but it never loses the personality, character, or heart that it begins with in the first place, and that may be the most important aspect of the entire thing.
This record hits hard when it wants to, but also swims around in the air that surrounds you.
It feels like a dream at times while others, it feels like a sucker punch to the gut.
What a brilliant combination of tones and moods.
You'll have to listen to this record to really understand what I mean, and I suggest doing that.
Listen to this record from start to finish, all in one shot, because it's absolutely the best way to do it.
You should listen to it loud or with headphones on so you can soak in all of those layers that are going on. There are plenty of times where notes and sounds float through the ethers of the songs, building on those atmospheres before things really start thrashing out hard.
To soak all of that in, headphones may be best.
This record will have an effect on you. You'll have to listen to it to find out exactly what that effect will be.
