No Stars Upon The Bridge from Hallatar is one of those special listens that will keep you coming back time and time again. The album is based on the lyrics and poems of the late Aleah Starbridge, and it’s a haunting listen that will give you goosebumps.
Crushingly heavy, No Stars Upon The Bridge hits you like a tonne of bricks and you really do feel the bleakness to the music as if its your own. Opener Mirrors sets the scene for things to come well, with Hallatar immediately presenting you with a magnificent wall of sound courtesy of the guitars and drums, and when the meaty vocals are added for good measure that’s when you know you’re hearing something special.
Although the music as a whole is nice and heavy, there’s also nice interjections of melody from time to time, such as in third track Melt which is more of a slow ballad for the first half of the song before the seriously heavy second half of it, and closing track Dreams Burn Down features an appearance of Aleah’s beautiful soft vocals (I dare you to not well up whilst hearing her stunning tones again) and the coupling of those with lead vocalist Tomi Joutsen’s deep and powerful growl is phenomenal. This final song will give you goosebumps.
This is an album that shouldn’t be missed, and is a beautiful tribute to Aleah, who is still as sorely missed today as ever.
9.5/10
