The track begins in the sci-fi noir synth sound of a bar in the Blade Runner universe. It isn’t long before the hardcore cyber punk element comes crashing through the door of the club and making a ruckus with aggressive riffs and serious prog power. This is a band that make cosmic horror seem like a daydream, it’s beautiful, it’s out of this world, and you can’t help but nod your head in trancelike obedience.
The track starts out with a simple synth that reels the listener into the safe space made popular through countless darkwave playlists on steaming sites. When the drums start to pepper the song with the machine gun power that you can only get from a real kit you get the first inclination that this might be something a little different. It starts off muted but quickly builds in aggression providing the heartbeat of the song from then on.
The guitars are overclocked and dialled to 11 with that gorgeous fuzzy quality to them that allows the sound to soar. The riffs are pure intergalactic filth, huge in sound and lightspeed in fury. As the track continues to build and grow the instrumentation becomes more and more frenetic and the tight interplay between the band becomes ever more apparent.
At around the 2:40 mark the build falls away for a second taking a breather and utilising a really cool little scratched record DJ technique. When the instruments come back in it seems all the more powerful for it.
The ‘Tiger Nebula’ clearly exists in a different universe from ours at a different time in space. It has a black hole gravitational pull that leaves the listener feeling weightless, floating in the godlike primordial and alien nature of it.
Words by Matt Miles
