hey guys

im starting a new blog series where ill be reviewing a bunch of albums i really like. i know, lame. i guess i just want to share music i really enjoy that doesnt get enough attention, and hope to also find more people to talk to here on this site. i wont be going that in-depth with the reviews, as some of these bands are practically nonexistent at this point lol

hope u guys like it!

album introduction

the album id like to talk about today is called Estrella. it was released back in 2002 as what i believe was the debut album for the band Aisling. the band was formed back in 1998 in El Paso, Texas, and they mostly play a sort of melodic nu-metal. one of the bands a former members has noted that the bands name is pronounced as "ash-ling", which id never have guessed if i didnt take the time to research the band a little lol. below is the spotify release of the album, which can also be found on youtube, apple music, deezer and other streaming platforms

it is mostly a band forgotten to time, with 1,326 current spotify listeners and a peak of 29,068 streams on their most popular song, White Lie. the only video i could find of them on youtube is a music video for another song called VLHN, which im pretty sure is an unreleased demo from 2004 as theres no trace of it in any of their later albums. below is the video for the unreleased track

album review

this album is pretty great. it has some really good songs, like Left to Right, Suffocate and White Lie, although the rest of the album can be a bit generic and mediocre at times, but still pleasing to the ear nonetheless. the only song i dont particularly like is Minus because they keep turning off the damn guitar in the second half of the song and its kind of jarring

i absolutely love the main singers whiny, desperate and dissonant voice though, which paired with the muddy, wall-of-sound rhythm guitar and kind of shitty sounding drumkit really make for a raw, emotional and suffocating atmosphere that i really enjoy from these smaller underground bands

the guitar effects are really good as well, especially the chorus and flanger effects used on clean guitars for intros, which im an absolute sucker for. the screaming is also pretty good when it appears, and although at times feels overdone, adds a lot to the rawness and desolation of the songs

i really really enjoy this album, as its best pieces really make you feel a certain hopelessness that i could only compare to asphyxiating in a fog so dense you can barely see yourself, while a stifling wind pushes you back so hard that just standing still exhausts you. the atmosphere is absolutely there and you can just feel the desperation and confusion

the lyrics are just pretty generic for the genre though. topics about being misunderstood, feeling disrespected, worthlessness, feeling isolated, betrayal, being fed up, being angry and just trauma dumping in a vague way. nothing too bad, but nothing that sticks out honestly

the only thing is how some parts in some songs become a little cringe when you listen too long and think too much about it. it can feel at times like the singer is trying a bit too hard, both lyrically and vocally, but i think thats just something specific to the entire genre of nu-metal as a whole

final rating - 7.5/10

Estrella is a really good album that you should definitely give a listen to if you like raw, emotional and melodic nu-metal. the production quality of the album is not that great, but somehow it really adds to the atmosphere its trying to convey. i think overall the combination of sounds can be a pretty refreshing take on a genre that can sometimes feel too same-y at times, thanks to a more melancholic and melodic approach, but other times falls a bit short and becomes a little generic

closing thoughts

hopefully you guys enjoy this album as much as me!! as part of my ongoing effort to make more artwork, ive made a reimagined single cover for the song Left to Right using Photoshop. ill also be putting a bunch of photos i found online of the band down below. thanks for reading and see u next time!!

band media