Review: Azell – Astralis
- The Metal Crawlspace
- Nov 5
- 1 min read
When doom metal gets it right, it’s like staring into the abyss and finding beauty in the darkness. Astralis from Azell is exactly that; a slow, cosmic crawl through despair, isolation, and wonder. The husband-and-wife duo, Courtney and David Napier, have crafted an album that doubles as a science-fiction narrative.
Each track aligns with a chapter from the novella they wrote first, telling the story of two astronauts who witness Earth’s destruction from a solar flare that awakens a Lovecraftian beast born from the planet’s remains. From there, things only get stranger.
Musically, Astralis is drenched in atmosphere and carried by riffs that feel like shifting tectonic plates. The production is strong, clean enough to hear the detail, but murky enough to keep that oppressive doom weight. Courtney’s vocals add a haunting, human edge, while David’s gutturals ground everything in raw, cosmic terror. When the two voices collide, it’s electric. Those exchanges create the perfect storm of contrast — ethereal meets monstrous — and I honestly wish there were more of them throughout the album.
Astralis is world-building through sludge. It’s cinematic, literary, and beautifully heavy. It doesn’t reinvent the genre, but it reminds you what doom does best: pull you into its gravity until you forget where you are.
