Hey, you! Yeah, you! You like space? You like the cold, unfathomable reaches, the enormous nebulae that plunge you into daily existential crises, the fact that we’re basically alone (for the time being) in a universe that makes us all look like specks so impossibly small, that calling us grains of sand on the world’s largest beach gives us way more import in the universe than we actually have? Well then, buddy, I have a great album for you.

Kardashev has been around for a little while now, and although they’ve released two EPs, Progression and Excipio, and the single “Iota”, this is their first full length release. They’ve used the time since Excipio, which came out just over two years ago, to explore and truly pin down their sound, and it absolutely shows on Peripety, which comes out tomorrow.

Part of growing into their own sonic body as a unit was working hard to pin down how the interchange between guitars and synths goes, and it shows here that they’ve drastically improved in this part: before, although the two worlds intermingled occasionally, neither really felt like they complemented the other. That’s significantly changed here; taking significant strides forward in their use of ambience, Kardashev use their synths to provide an enormous sense of grandeur and scope to the album before their brutally groovy deathcore riffs bring the whole universe crashing down on you.

Also key here is the band’s spacey, wide production. It was a risky choice to make this album feel so huge, especially in the percussion, and I’m sure it will turn some off on first listen, but, once one gets used to it, it fits the music well. Everything is nebulous and grand, remote and distant but somehow still in tune with the intense, burning, existential intimacy that only space can provide.

Anybody who’s been wanting more metal in the vein of Fallujah’s The Flesh Prevails or Aegaeon’s fantastic 2011 release Dissension, look no further. You’ve found the perfect thing to satisfy that spacey craving with Peripety.

-SH