Album Review: Moonscape – The Continuum Synergy (Self Released)

Atmospheric, progressive, and melodic metal band, Moonscape returns with a brand-new concept album called ‘The Continuum Synergy’. Out on January 20th, 2023.

We’ve been fans of a lot of what Moonscape has done, having reviewed the 2017 release ‘Entity’, and the 2020 release ‘Entity, Chapter II: Echoes from a Cognitive Dystopia’. All the work of one individual (Håvard Lunde), Moonscape has consistently evolved over the years, and that is extremely notable in the new album.

An ambitious concept album with a sci-fi story set in the early 22nd century, The Continuum Synergy features a cast of characters voiced by the likes of David Åkesson, Drake Chrisdensen, Ken Mills, Matthew Brown, Greta Hajduková, Nina Pohleven, Marcela Villarroel, Stefani Keogh, Jim Brunaud and Håvard Lunde, himself.

An album all about storytelling, it begins with unsettling atmosphere as Galileo’s Quest conjures up images of the vast unknown. An introduction, it’s with Rude Awakening that sees The Continuum Synergy really come to life. An eleven-plus minute epic that features energised heaviness, progressive eccentricities, clever layers of melody and effects, groovy head-banging moments, and colossal twists and turns.

Take a deep breath, The Continuum Synergy has only just got started, as haunting atmosphere gives way to a frenetic and crunching sound on A Rendezvous in Time? Before Elegy of Lost Souls’ haunting choir of voices, menacing doomy rhythm, and melodic tone shift creates an intriguing listen. Followed then by the metal grandeur and theatrical folk infused If Heaven Knows My Name.

If there’s one obvious takeaway from this new Moonscape album, it is that it’s not boring. It’s also ambitious and expansive, further proof coming in the form of an epic final pairing. The penultimate track, A Visionary’s Fate, and the finale of Beyond the Periphery. Two tracks that, combined, pass the twenty-minute mark and two tracks that see Moonscape pushing the limits of the project’s progressive capabilities to even greater heights.

This is undoubtably Moonscape’s most spectacular release yet and the ambition of Håvard Lunde has certainly been realised.

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