The larger of two related releases put out by Mesarthim in August 2020, "The Degenerate Era" is another grand journey into the farthest reaches of the cosmos for the duo, this time with a definite melodic progressive rock bent and elements of hard rock and heavy metal. Those alarmed at the choice of title may rest assured these Australians haven't suddenly gone neo-conservative and moralistic or become obsessed with woke divide-n-rule identity-politics: "The Degenerate Era" refers to a future time when there will be more dead or dying stars than there are new stars in the universe and most of the universe will then be dominated by entropy in the form of dwarf stars, collapsed supernovas and neutron stars, and black holes. (The junior of the pair of August 2020 releases from Mesarthim is "Planet Nine".) Accordingly "The Degenerate Era" is a huge affair of solemn, monumental melodic atmo-BM, at times probably (and perhaps deliberately) bloated and overwrought, but always powering ahead and steam-rolling its way through the huge dark vistas of the heavens to its ultimate destiny.
The music seems much more meaty and deeper in its sound than previous album "Ghost Condensate", and its course is steady and focused. It's less apt to skip off in a lighter electro-dance direction and any deviations from the solid-state course are taken by solo lead guitar with background synth-wash accompaniment. Synth-generated melodies may occasionally assume a lead role but these nearly always complement the harder music with soothing, orchestral droning tones or clear cold raindrop notes. In spite of the spider-like dry rasping BM vocals, the music glows with an upbeat attitude and even the background #synth and the dark spaces beam with a warm radiance behind the exuberant lead guitar solo passages.
A mini-trilogy in itself, "Laniakea", referring to the super-cluster of over 100,000 galaxies including the Milky Way itself (and in which our own solar system is a very small part), is the most solid and rugged track, and the most aggressively upbeat as well. The title track is slower and more melancholy, though much of it is still brisk and the BM steams ahead with vigour even while cold space ambient notes cascade forlornly through dark vacuum.
The remaining tracks on the album don't appear to have much more to add other than to keep up the buoyant attitude with sometimes stunning riffing, as on the second half of "Time Domain" which almost goes ballistic and into another realm: for one brief moment I had high hopes Mesarthim would do something completely bat-shit out of the ordinary. Also notable is a brief section almost halfway through "Paradox" where by sheer intense drama and emotion the music for once races ahead of the musicians and almost turns them into channels of inspired creation. Apart from these inspired moments, the music settles into a groove of generic synthesiser space ambient kitsch driven by programmed dance beats and rhythms.
It may seem odd that an album on the increasing entropy of the universe and its inevitable decline into chaos should turn out such a cheery affair but this paradox is consistent with the original depressive nature and outlook of cosmic #darkspace BM, in which the universe is indifferent to the fortunes of humanity and to whether self-aware and supposedly intelligent beings that evolve end up thriving in peace or extinguish themselves through stupid and thoughtless acts. The upbeat attitude gives the album direction, momentum and energy that can carry even grand bombastic music. Even with this style of music, inspiration and originality are still needed, and in this respect there are times where the album's fuel tank is running low on creative juice and relying on programmed dance music elements to keep it going.
At this point in their career Mesarthim seem happy with their music direction, even as it skids perilously close to being generic and stereotyped. If they continue as is, I would suggest they try to improve their sound, make it a bit clearer and more three-dimensional to give the music the depth it needs.