Astra

Astra is the second and also the best known album by this South African psych rock group. Their debut album was a pretty mediocre psych rock album but Astra is a clear step forward. The album includes various styles of material ranging from heavy psychedelia to early prog and space rock…

More colorful and evolved songs like "Sedated" typify the dynamic but still quite heavy sound of Spiritual Beggars' third release, Ad Astra. The band had previously stuck to a contemporary stoner palette somewhere between the thundering Kyuss and chaotic Corrosion of Conformity, but everything from the Doors ("Per Aspera Ad Astra") to Deep Purple ("Wonderful World" and others) gets folded into the retro metal mix on this release. Christian "Spice" Sjöstrand's more aggressive vocal work clears up any confusion about the group's modernity, but relevance really isn't an issue with music this crushing (yet listenable).

With critics and listeners seemingly already in their corner, San Diego classic space/prog five-piece Astra make a Moog-heavy sophomore outing in the form of "The Black Chord". Astra won many ears to their side with 2009’s Rise Above debut, "The Weirding", on which they offset retro King Crimson-style melodies with a sense of modern urgency that indeed also shows up throughout the six tracks of the second album. It’s Astra’s balance of old and new that makes their recorded output so fascinating, and as the US has become even more enamored of all things taggable as progressive and/or psychedelic in the last three years - at least in an underground sense – The Black Chord arrives at just the right time and in just the right place for the band to be able to make the most of their songwriting…