Astral Magic- Dance of Destiny (ASTRAL051, 2025)

This is album is going back to the early roots of Astral Magic with Santtu playing all the instruments (guitar, bass, synths, vocals, drum programming) except a MOOG solo on track 2!  The album features a nice intro piece before kicking into the heavy space rock of the title track.  One of the heavier riffs to appear on an AM record in a while. A slightly different singing style as well for Santtu. Great track. Distortion in Space Time is an instrumental over 8 mins and a nice space rocking track as well. Uptempo, melodic, more complex drums and then the master Hawkwind like riff and organ kicks in and fades out as you head off into another realm. We Plunge into Chaos slowly builds up after the opening solo. A nice laid back vocal on this mid paced melodic track, reminds me of Dark Sun, Santtu´s old band. Transmission Psi is a short synth interlude with some spoken words leading into another 8min epic, Slumber of the Ancient Ones. 

It is a slow one with a cautious vibe. It slowly builds and evolves with a lot of keyboard solos as it creates this hypnotic state as you eventually reach the end. Epic track..  Zep Tepi features some lyrics by Crystalinks and kicks the pace up a bit with a great bass line and groove. Love the synths on this one… Words are delivered as a spoken word in parts and then sung.  Last Days of a Time Cycle ends this record in a laid back manner.  Great job Santtu… 

http://astralmagic.bandcamp.com