Despite having been alive in no less than seven different consecutive decades (I had to check my maths, and damn, I wasn’t wrong!), I try not to be too set in my ways, and especially when it comes to music, I look forward to trying new things. As such, with the editor offering me ‘Cosmic Chronicles: Act 1, The Ascension’, hereafter to be shorted to ‘Cosmic Chronicles’ because, as I mentioned, I’m getting old and only have so much time left alive and can’t spend it all typing one album title, I was genuinely interested. The bio for They Watch Us From The Moon also piqued my interest, with promises of space rock, doom, psychedelia, and many more diverse elements, all with twin female vocals leading from the front. So, album downloaded, installed, and time to click play.

‘On The Fields Of The Moon’ started in a suitably spacefaring fashion, with sound-bites lifted from a NASA lunar landing being played before a slow, heavy riff backed by thudding beats framing the twin harmonies of Luna Nemesis and Nova 101001 come from the speakers. So far, so good, and I awaited hearing how it would develop, after all there are only five tracks to span the three quarters of an hour of the album, and this opener is a good eight minutes plus. It surely must grow and develop, right? No. It just rather plods, and despite repeated listens, didn’t really grab me. It sounded like part of a Devin Townsend track that was laden with a potential to expand into some fascinating new direction, but was awaiting completion. The same was sadly rather true of ‘Space Angel’, which is a real shame, as the elements were there and waiting to take off, particular praise being deserved for the vocals of the bands own Space Angels. With a title like ‘Mother Of All Bastards’ something heavy and challenging could have been expected, but again, no, just the same drawn out delivery that kept on hinting at taking flight, only to settle back into what is admittedly, a beautifully crafted dirge, but a dirge nonetheless.

‘Creeper AD’, somehow manages to slow things down even further, taking a full four minutes plus before the undoubted drawing point of the band, the siren singing, is allowed to manifest, and it then just gets lost in the drudgery. There was some promise in the opening of equally long closer ‘Return To Earth’, starting as it does with an intense wall of sound that in a different reality would herald the arrival of a Ziltoid like galactic terror, but again, the track just settled into the same slow motion repetitive slog.

I really wanted to like ‘Cosmic Chronicles’, as there was plenty there to like. The instruments are well played, the themes of Sci-fi are close to my heart, as anyone who has been to my house and seen my lines of bookshelves could attest, and again, I must single out the singing of Luna and Nova for praise. However, for me it just needed an extra something, be it energy, pace, or just plain and simple variety. Rather than being a mix of psychedelia, doom, stoner, and metal that was promised, it delivered a sound that I shall now name as mopey-space-goth. I hate to be negative towards folks who are so clearly more musically gifted than I could ever hope to be, but I honestly couldn’t imagine playing this album again any time soon, and had to stop at the number of times I did as with each replay I just wanted to chisel another point off the score.

(5/10 Spenny)

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https://theywatchusfromthemoon.bandcamp.com/album/cosmic-chronicles-act-i-the-ascension