For most of its five-decade lifespan, metal is typically associated with darkness, anger, evil, and other generally negative adjectives. But despite what bands like Behemoth and Meshuggah would have you believe, metal tropes can be reappropriated to create music that is inspiring, hopeful, and even blissfully gorgeous.

Boston’s Astronoid has been proving this for the better part of a decade now, offering up double kick drums and fretboard-burning riffs that encourage your heart to swell as much as your head to bang. Radiant Bloom takes their patented sound (nicknamed “dream thrash” by some fans) even further, with dreamier atmospheres and more crushing riffs.

If you’ve been following Astronoid since 2016’s Air, there are no surprises here. And good thing too. While scads of metal bands are pressing into mixing heaviness and beauty (see also: Alcest, Spotlights, Holy Fawn, etc.), Astronoid does so in a way that no one else does. From an instrumental perspective, they seem to draw much of their sonic palette from bands like Slayer or Megadeth, but shifted into major keys and accompanied by the lighter-than-air vocals of Brett Boland.

But on Radiant Bloom, the group continues to press into larger dynamic swings, continuing on the path of their 2019 self-titled release. Tracks like “Admin,” “I’ve Forgotten Your Face,” and “Orchid” are especially strong examples of this with quieter passages between the shredding. There’s also more synth throughout the record, giving an even more blossoming atmosphere to their already spacious sound.

Don’t let any of that think they’ve gone soft though: Radiant Bloom has some of the most crushing moments the group has put to tape. The guitar solo of “Eyes” puts Kirk Hammett to shame. The chorus of “Sleep Whisper” takes a devastating turn from fluttering leads into crushing detuned riffage. “Human” even has some moments of near djent. And at the record’s sonic core, the rhythm section plays with just as much aggression as they would if these songs were in minor keys with aggressive vocals. As a sidenote, I have a working theory that the average person mostly hears the vocals of a piece of music. The strongest argument for this theory is when I saw Astronoid at Furnace Fest, where they offered one of the most brutal instrumental performances of the fest but were put on the softer stage because the vocals are so delicate.

Radiant Bloom certainly doesn’t find Astronoid reinventing themselves, but why would they need to? Theirs is one of the freshest takes on heavy metal around right now, and there isn’t a stale moment on the disc. Rather, they’ve demonstrated a consistency that proves they are deserving of the kind of attention that bands like Deafheaven are getting. And in a just world, they’d get it.

Radiant Bloom is out now on 3Dot Recordings.

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