Stargo – Violet Skies
Self-released / Broken Music – 2026
Rock, Metal, Stoner, Psych
Rated: *****
We dug their debut album Parasight immensely and absolutely loved the follow-up Dammbruch. So, when we learned that Stargo was releasing another album called Violet Skies, we sat up straight and waited for the promo to land. And once it did, we spun it relentlessly and soared with it through those Violet Skies…
So, Stargo, the spacefaring veterans of Germany’s Heavy Underground return as if emerging from a long orbit, five years older and gravitationally stronger. And with Violet Skies they deliver an event horizon kind of moment… For once you cross into these tracks, there is simply no way back…
The new Violet Skies album seems to be the perfect sweet spot between those two earlier albums, imploring more of the metal touches and song structuring from the debut, while letting tension and sounds develop as they did on Dammbruch. They have long since blended stoner rock haze, psychedelic drift, and metallic heft into their very own signature sound. But where the first two albums seemed to bookend the extremes of their sound, Violet Skies sits dead center and pulls you in like a majestic kind of black hole…
Tightening the screws, leaving off lengthy instrumental explorations and still maintaining that expansive edge. Perfect example is offered immediately with opener Interstellar, which comes out swinging with lumbering doom weight and expansive, cosmic lift, before turning into a metal burner. There’s some serious dynamic control in play and the metallic pacing seems to want to pay homage to their metal heroes of yore as much as it turns up the tension, which is stretched by a stoner ending that could be built upon endlessly on a live stage somewhere.
Following Shine Like Diamonds follows with all the propulsion and fire it could muster, the chorus flaring like a distant sun urging escape velocity. With the raw, grounded vocals, cutting through the riffs like transmissions from long lost galaxies. And that is an edge the Dortmund three seems to display throughout the record, balancing crushing mass with fragile human signals. And offering insights into what these songs could do experienced live.
But it’s Tharsis, the ten-minute wormhole of shifting textures and disciplined musicianship, bending time without losing direction that seems to suck in most of your attention. There’s suspense there, but more often than not, they let their riffs whirl around and become the tunnel towards an entirely different side of what could become the infinite. Cause as Tharsis develops and opens up, there are many moments that might go on longer and wilder as they perform this song on a stage somewhere. And that might be the very best thing about Violet Skies, many of the songs will make you long to see the band live. They will have you longing, almost achingly so…
Which only grows with the ending of The Great Machine. This is the intimate, the heavy and the cliff hanger ending every albums lusts for but are rarely delivered. It’s a send off with a promise and a demand. From both sides, you might demand more and Stargo wants you to come see them. To drift with them, live, somewhere, towards the infinite.. Towards those Violet Skies…
(Written by JK)
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