Album Review: Astralplane, Out of the Void
Posted in Reviews on December 31st, 2025 by JJ Koczan
There’s a quick, just-about-30-second intro to “Ascension,” and then Astralplane are underway with their second album, Out of the Void, and amid the progressive heavy psychedelic immersion that ensues, there’s a deceptive sense of forward motion that one can hear across the seven minutes of the opener in the hardness of Jørgen J. Halvorsen‘s kick drum, prescient of the tonal heft to come from guitarist Magnus J. Halvorsen and bassist/vocalist Lars Kristian J. Halvorsen. Yes, they’re brothers. That’s what the whole same-last-name-and-look-alike thing is about.
Based in Oslo and recording at Redline Studio, the familial trio made their debut with 2023’s Sly Serpent II, the eight songs of which were more exploratory in terms of style and rawer in the production where the five cuts on Out of the Void seems to have learned from the longer-form work on the preceding LP. Nothing on the second album reaches 14 minutes like the first record’s 14-minute title-track, but Out of the Void (released on Blues for the Red Sun with art by Mike Turzanski) trades that outward trajectory for a purposeful refinement of their purposes and a more cohesive approach. That isn’t to say they’ve ‘settled’ on a sound, but even as “Ascension” nestles into its slowdown crescendo later into its seven-minute run — an exciting culmination marked by rumbling low end and a long solo; they finish massive — the feeling is less that they’re trying things out than they’re executing what will become the foundation of future refinement. They’re not done growing, and it may turn out to be that Out of the Void is where they came to understand what it is they want to chase in terms of songwriting.
On the most basic level, there is patience and fluidity. The going in “Ascension,” which in its earlier verses reminds a bit of Samsara Blues Experiment in the vocals — a point of redirection since the first LP, where most of the vocals had an Al Cisnerosian meditative tone; everybody sings, so I’m not sure who’s who or where; one more reason to see them live — is remarkably smooth, and before it’s done, converted heads will know where they’re at. There’s bliss to be found coming out of that void, a swirling pink ether given shape by the nine-minute title-track that follows “Ascension” and heralds tumult in its drum-led beginning but stays controlled for the duration, holding back its Sabbathian push for the second half and complementing with shimmer. It is an encompassing nod when the full tonality kicks in, with an Iommic lead guitar backed by a layered-in chugging rhythm line.
If you were twisting my arm, the verses of “Out of the Void” or the cosmic echo around the riff driving the peak at the end of “It Goes On” could be related to neo-space rock, the kind of space-boogie proffered by Slift, and in the melody and groove underlying the textural breadth of centerpiece “Earthlings,” one can draw some likeness to Elder while the now-we-have-a-blanket-of-tone-and-it’s-very-warm-and-we’re-putting-it-on-you-because-you’re-old-and-tired (that might be me projecting) heavy psychedelic depth feels somewhat kin to Rezn. All of this namedropping accomplishes little that a “FFO:” sticker on a vinyl couldn’t, but if Astralplane are putting their songs into conversation with modern-heavy pastiche, the ‘stoner’ umbrella of what’s actually heavy rock, psych, doom and prog, they’re not doing so without adding perspective of their own.
“Earthlings” ends up being as much band-in-room as band-in-space, and that suits listening just fine. Along with “Out of the Void” and the closing “Refugee of the Universe,” it’s one of three inclusions on either side of nine minutes long, while “Ascension” and the penultimate “It Goes On” are shorter but still over seven apiece. Given the construction of Out of the Void, with fewer but maybe on average longer songs than the first album, that feels like a purposeful decision on the part of the band. They’ve noted that there was more material that either went unrecorded or unincluded, and from the implications of “some dozen songs that didn’t make the cut,” one can imagine a process whereby this album was almost sculpted to be what it is by the decisions of which songs to put on it, giving an almost narrative aspect to the sound if not the lyrics.
Maybe that’s how it happened and maybe it isn’t, but the impression of purpose remains strong as Out of the Void moves into its closing duo, with “It Goes On” serene in its intro and pastoral like if Blind Melon had known what tonal presence was until the chug pushes it heavier. There’s more likeness to Samsara Blues Experiment in the lower vocals, but that longer intro is hypnotic and Astralplane clearly aren’t interested in building that up just to let it go nowhere, so the wah-swirl soloing and previously-noted churning finish are well earned by the time they get there, the nod not quite terrestrial which is fine since it doesn’t seem like the band are even bothering to look down from whatever atmospheric layer it is in which they float.
In the end, I’m not sure “Refugee of the Universe” is trying to summarize the album leading up to it, but it does speak to various ideas Astralplane have laid out, from the malleable tempos to the jam-born ebbs and flows that made “Out of the Void” feel so much like the arrival its title hinted toward. Movement is key, both through the long instrumental opening section and the airy-but-bluesy midsection verses that carry into the riffy pickup that caps. It ends with a fun, dirty riff that’s as much garage rock as heavy psych, and perhaps was written earlier among the material from whence Out of the Void was carved, making for a suitable conclusion as the band finally hit the ground running and are off into the unknown, which happens to be a cold stop some few seconds later.
Considering the intention so resonant behind so much of what the three-piece are doing across Out of the Void, one can’t help but read into that moment. Is that Astralplane, at the very end of the record, announcing their arrival? Is that when they’re out of the void, like the title says? I’m not sure that’s something that can be answered until their next time out, but asking sure makes me look forward to that.
