Band:	Sternenstaub
Album:	Destination: Infinity
Style:	Symphonic black metal
Release date:	February 2004

01. Darkness And Stars
02. The Mind's Eye
03. Shadows In My Heart
04. Astronomica
05. Distant Spheres
06. Frozen Tears
07. The Eternal Slumber
08. Destination: Infinity

I got all excited when I got this Cd, and this is a band that I never heard of, I just though it would be an interesting Cd, I saw the cover art and the first thing that went through my mind was Electro Metal, genre that is gaining popularity lately. And as a good investigator I try to discover the secrets of this sub-genre.

But this is not the case because Sternenstaub is not Electro Metal, they fooled me for a while I must say, but the graphics on the cover art have an explanation, this is a concept album about the stuff that supposedly formed the universe, the planets, and us: the star dust.
Intriguing theory this is, the star dust created and shaped everything on earth and the universe, and one day everything will turn into dust again? talking about deep thoughts.

So, star dust right? What genre you use to express a concept so complex as this? These guys picked Black Metal, Symphonic Black Metal to be more precise, mostly mid paced tunes with orchestral parts, shrieks an few blast beats and deep clean vocals, think you've heard before? Maybe, but you can't leave without reading the rest of the review right?

Basically, this is Black Metal á la Limbonic Art, Sear Bliss and Arcturus, with some twists like symphonic elements and some synths and vocal effects giving a whole "outer space" atmosphere.

Is widely know that I'm not a big Black Metal fan, and I'm very exigent when it comes to Black Metal, so the band has to be pretty original to rank high on my books, sadly, there's no much place for originality in this genre, so the question is? how does Sternenstaub ranks? Not bad I must say, some songs where boring, but some others like "Astronomica" and "Distant Spheres" really caught my attention.

Nice effort, nice concept, nice artistic direction, they have the right elements, they just need the key element: innovation. I'll keep a eye on these guys in case they decide to surprise me.