Album review written by Sierra Walsh
A quiet night at work presented the opportunity to switch on my playlist featuring my favorite space emos. As stories like this usually go, I was about to skip the ad so I could listen to ‘My Demons’ in peace and go about paper work. However, a sudden burst of drums and violins made me check that an interesting dystopian film wasn’t being advertised. I was pleasantly surprised to see it was a band. A metalcore band. A metalcore band being advertised before a Starset song. That only meant one thing. There are more space emos. Cosmic composers. Astronomic artists. Or Suasion for short.
Suasion originates from Brussels, Belgium and has been active since 2014. They are not assigned to a label, which I found intriguing and wanted to dig a little more into their discography. Islanders is their first EP, self-released on March 15th, 2014. The following year, they released “Mirabilia” as a single off of Islanders as well as their second, self-titled EP. Both of these are available on Spotify and definitely worth many listens. October of 2019 brought their first album, Stardust, and I need to know why more attention isn’t being given to it.
What stood out to me the most was the way Stardust told a story about what happens when someone rediscovers themselves. The instrumental crescendo in “Mission” catapults the listener into the journey. Adding to that, the video accompanying “Mission” gives an Alice in Wonderland vibe as a child falls off his swing and through a greenish blue void. From a literary standpoint, this appears to be a transition from one’s comfort zone into the unknown. However, the piece can also be interpreted as someone reawakening their inner child. The album art shows the child on the swing sitting in front of an eye-like void and the feeling from “Colorless” made me delve further into this theory.
The fear of being like everyone else lingers in “Colorless” especially because the singer feels like he can do better. He’s telling himself to not “be the same as everyone” and reaching back to the dreams he had as a kid. The lyrics “stay guided by the fire you lit as a child” compliment the “Mission” video by embodying the revisiting of one’s “inner child” and using it as motivation to accomplish all the larger than life goals. While having the conversation with oneself about being “colorless and tasteless/in a state of distress” there needs to be a willingness to fight through anxiety and societal expectations in order to escape a mundane normality. When a person is aware they are not in a place they should be in life, the choices of change or ignoring that fact brings their own set of anxieties and neither are easy decisions to make. Hence why “The Grace” stands out.
This was the song that originally caught my attention. From what I’ve seen, this is the only video they explained the song’s meaning. In the pinned YouTube comment, Suasion explains that the song is a conversation about escaping negativity. “The Grace” explores an external battle being fought but also a knowing that “I can exist out of your grip/On the back of my neck/I’ll never feel your hand” which shows that breaking free of the negative influence starts with believing in one’s abilities. Suasion’s statement, “It is time to change, to find yourself in your heart and not let other people dictate what is best for you” furthers the overall message of the song and album. You know yourself better than anyone, despite what outside influences will try to argue. Resilience blossoms from fighting against the odds, overcoming self-inflicted obstacles, and, developing an honest relationship with yourself.
Society has a way of trapping individuals in the “normal” realm. The arts are not taken seriously enough and there is so much uncertainty in making one’s own path—especially with art. Too many ‘what ifs’ get in the way. The title track “Stardust” ties together the entire album with the lyrics “Bring me what I gave up/The stardust in my eyes/The wonders in the sky/Let them return and let them bring me back.” This is also a reflection on how the singer is using music as a way to reconnect with his childhood dreams. This song unravels a journey towards the original “Stardust in my eyes” and uses it as motivation to keep going. After going through the process of figuring out that he’s unhappy with his life, he wonders, “is that child still alive?” and seeks out whether or not the original love he harbored as a child is still inside him.
The album ends with “Golden Age,” which acknowledges the struggles with doubt and depression while starting to accomplish goals. Even if every last detail doesn’t come to fruition, the final message is “here everything depends on your choices.” There can be an element of speaking things into existence, but there are going to be sleepless nights filled with doubt. Don’t let them be deterrents and manifest your own reality. Whatever is deemed a failure or set back can be channeled into motivation in order to make it all real.
Stardust will hold a very special place in my heart for a long time. It’s more than going fearlessly into accomplishing one’s goals. This goes through all the anxiety of that moment someone realizes they have lost their “stardust” and desperately wants it back. There’s an urgency to becoming the person you inner child knows you can be and never losing hope. Fear holds us back more than we’d like to admit and Suasion pushes this fact to the forefront of their conversation.
The album will force you to question what is scarier: jumping into the unknown with only yourself to rely on or completely killing off your inner child and sticking to the normal routine? Say you do jump head first into that unfamiliar territory. Then what? Stardust doesn’t give a solid answer as to what happens. There is no castle waiting at the end. Instead, the album shows how reigniting that inner fire motivates someone to make it all real and why the struggles are worth fighting through.
Stay connected with Suasion:
