Stone Oak Cosmonaut- The Last Machine (Self Released)

Stone Oak Cosmonaut is a band I have followed since their inception in 2007 and so cool they continue to put our records every few years.  The band is from Holland but rarely play out live and are pretty much a studio project lead by Edwin von Trippenhof.  This is the bands 4^th album and double CD with just over 80mins of music. The first CD  features 6 tracks , while the 2^nd features 3 longer and mostly instrumental tracks. The CD starts off with Solaris (Ride out into the Sun), a track with a heavy groove and some space sounds and synths mixed in as the riff picks up. The vocal kicks in after a few mins and still reminds me a bit of Wino (ST. Vitus, Spirit Caravan, The Obsessed). Ancestor (Sent out to seek the Gods) slows things around but has another cool heavy guitar riff as the story continues to unfold. Later, a very cool guitar solo  is played after a section with some effected vocals. Entry Corridor (Alien Mötorsurfing) is a short 3min instrumental track with a long guitar solo. Until we meet again in Shadows (Things are not the same) has the most heavy guitar riff yet and more powerful vocals. Some whispery voices and spacey sounds make this one quite cool in the 8mins. Navigator (On board the craft, know your place, set your Course). The vocal is more relaxed but the pace is fairly fast. This one really builds in intensity over the 6mins. The Star Machine is a 16min track that ends CD1 and what a cool journey this one is. It starts quite slow and spacey and ends heavy and dynamic.  CD2-The Last Machine (Final) features 3 long tracks and starts off with Escape Velocity (Spinning, Whirling, until we drift away).  This starts with a phased out guitar and then the main heavy riff kicks in and a great instrumental sort of heavy space jam begins with some great guitar. Later the track becomes more slow and doomy and some space sounds are mixed in.  The Song of the Star Aldebaran (From the desert to the stars) is a 15min mostly instrumental voyage. It starts with a lot of synths, bass and slowly the guitars and drums build the piece up, while maintaining a sort of dark mysterious edge to it.. Later there is some nice harmony guitar parts. At 8 mins a long guitar solo begins. The vocal comes in around 10mins. The CD ends with Gyrovagus in Meteora (Wandering the desert Road, Reaches the rocks of Meteora. Rejoices in the glimpse of heaven and goes on).  Amazing track.

This is probably the bands most adventurous album while still retaining the same over all style. Nice double album.

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