THE BLACK CHORD

It took three years but the San Diego progressive psychedelic space rock band ASTRA returned in 2012 with its followup album THE BLACK CHORD which found all five members making a reprise with their amazing chemistry to craft another slice of excellent retro prog with all the cool sounds of mellotron, moog, synthesizers and styles from the early 1970s. The album even featured artwork from the artist Arik Roper and continued in the vein of the debut but benefited from a high production budget and a larger audience that had been won over by the debut "The Weirding" which pleased both fans and critics alike.

THE BLACK CHORD continued the psychedelic space rock aspects but tamped down the blatant Pink Floyd influences and also crafted a faster and heavier album than the debut. By turning up the prog influences and focusing more on the heavier Red-era style of King Crimson and the more demanding period of Yes such as on "Relayer," ASTRA added hefty knotty and at times even angular fortifications to its otherwise hypnotic space prog. With keyboard workouts reminiscent of Genesis' "Trespass" (especially the track "The Knife") and twin guitar attacks that featured the heavy prog focus of bands like Uriah Heep and more modern bands like early Anekdoten, ASTRA's second album was not only more demanding in terms of progressive rock but offered a more expansive style of playing.

A much shorter affair than the 79 minute debut, THE BLACK CHORD which featured six tracks only barely exceed the 47 minute playing time. Remaining roughly 2/3 instrumental and the rest with vocals like the debut, THE BLACK CHORD featured more upbeat compositions that threatened to drift into metal territory but never quite took things all the way. The band 's chemistry had clearly coalesced even further into a fully oiled machine at this point giving the band the confidence to tackle some of the most complex time signatures that prog can offer albeit within the context of well-crafted melody based musical motifs that equally sucked you in as easily as the more chilled space rock tracks of "The Weirding." Very much still looking to the 70s, the album is dominated by mellotrons, memotrons, minimoogs, moog rogues, echoplexes, Hammond organs and even a grand piano. While not the primary focus, the occasional flute parts drift in and out as do moments of acoustic guitar.

The opening track "Cocoon" was an interesting track title thus fueling more rumors and claims that the band's previous album was a secret soundtrack of the 1985 film of the same name. The track immediately distinguished THE BLACK CHORD from its predecessor with a beefier production, faster tempos and a significantly improved leap in technicality, yet without sacrificing the very space prog mood setting psychedelia that was laid down in the debut. While the space rock dominates much of the album, the clear nods to Meddle-era Pink Floyd had been replaced by more original takes on the space prog sound with no clear connections to many bands however the occasion Floydian slip does occur as do moments that are reminiscent of classic Hawkwind. While the heaviness on the debut was more of a proto-metal Black Sabbath sort of chord oriented accent, on THE BLACK CHORD the heavy guitar riffing delivers more complex progressive workouts bringing bands like Anekdoten or even Captain Beyond.

Overall THE BLACK CHORD found ASTRA improving on all levels with a more complex album and a more refined style that sounded more original than retro despite the obvious warmth of the 70s tones and timbres delivered through the analog equipment. In many ways the heavier and faster aspects of the album do put a damper on the more chilled out space prog vibe of the debut but it's like comparing apples and oranges and in the end it's a good thing that this band didn't just take the cookie cutter approach and simply make a "Weirding 2." The maturity on this album and the development over three years should have propelled this band into the big leagues of modern prog with the likes of Porcupine Tree but it didn't quite work out that way.

While the band didn't call it quits, drummer David Hurley did leave the band in 2013 which left the rest of the band unable to cope with idea of a new percussionist with all the members citing the perfect chemistry of the original five would never be the same. The band took a hiatus which at this point has been over a decade. Three members ( Conor Riley, Brian Ellis, Paul Marrone ) went on to form Birth in 2017 and released an album in 2022 however ASTRA has remained on permanent hiatus for over a decade. All the members have stated that they are slowly working on a third album and when it's completed it will emerge but considering all the members are busy with other projects there's no telling exactly when that could be. Whatever the case, these guys are worth the wait with two excellent albums that each showcased a different aspect of the band's wealth of playing styles.