Album Review: God Is An Astronaut - The Beginning Of The End
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Irish Post-Rock quartet celebrate their twentieth anniversary by re-recording their 2002 debut, The End of the Beginning live in the studio. Recorded in a single day back in October 2021, the Beginning of the End takes the ideas of its parent record and evolves that sound through the band’s extensive touring and innovation over the past two decades.
As with all of God Is an Astronaut’s works, The Beginning of the End benefits from being listened to in a single sitting, preferably in a isolation, devoid of distraction and with the finest set of headphones you have. Labyrinthine in its construction, this new presentation sees the Brothers Kinsellla and company weaving musical spells, picking delicately at musical notes before unveiling a dizzying assault on the senses.
The one-time title track, The End of the Beginning grounds itself through solid rhythm work, upon which carefully crafted guitar lines can take flight and soar. Remembrance opens with a lone, melancholic piano, picking out progressive patterns akin to Pink Floyd or latter-day Marilion, while building to a devastating musical peak.
Such is the breadth of the band’s musical vision that the more pop and upbeat Coda and Route 666 can sit comfortably alongside the most overtly rock-oriented – with a splash of the Gothic – Ascend to Oblivion, the ambient interlude of Coma or the widescreen vistas of Point Pleasant.
From Dusk to the Beyond sees itself extended to over seven-minutes and opens with fragile notes picked above a laconic drumbeat. The original’s descent into aggression is exacerbated by the new version’s hypnotic use of high registered keyboard, dropping into a stirring mid-section through ghostly rise and falls, before heading into a berating conclusion.
While not as heavy as some of other bands in the genre, God Is an Astronaut still know how to wring musical aggression out of their instruments: Fall From the Stars is filled with weighty dynamism, whereas Twilight’s off-kilter drum patterns create a platform for wailing guitars. And, it’s worth remembering these Irish lads were the third-stage headliner at Damnation Festival back in 2011, holding their own against a fledgling Conan and fellow-countrymen, Altar of Plagues.
But, while The Beginning of the End falls down on the heaviness, it more than makes up for that in the creativity and interest factors. It’s well-worth comparing the source album with this reimagining as there’s enough variation between the two to warrant keeping both on your shelves.
