This band has already ceased to be. They are no more. One album and they bit the dust and wandered off to different shores. Yet even though they snuffed it after only this one piece of art, their release is of a most peculiar type. When I opened the letter, in which I received the CD some time ago, Rostau included a tiny sheet of paper with some lines written on it. As these have some importance for this review, parts of it are quoted below:Please visit www.rostaudoom.com for more info on the concepts behind this album. This record isn’t only about music, it can’t be fully comprehended and enjoyed without additional info.Indeed. So, let us take a look at the site then and see whether it proves to be useful understanding To Die and to the Stars Ascend a bit better.Well, if you expect essay like texts – see the lyrics of Cradle of Filth or Bal Sagoth for instance – then disappointment might take over all too soon, because this Italian band kept the information at a surprisingly minimalist level. There are no epic stories, no in-depth essays and no complex (flash?) presentation of their idea behind this work. But the visitor will be able to get some hints on the concept used for this first and only album of Rostau. So, why not shed some light on it:The track lengths:1. Celestial Hive Mind 11:01:1112. Ahriman of the Thousand Sons 11:01:1113. To Die and to the Stars Ascend 11:01:1114. 3.33.333 03:33:333You do not see such on a daily basis, do you? Bands do rarely play with this type and thing and try to write music of a certain length; 1349 did this on their Hellfire album with the title track and the Finnish band H.I.M.’s debut had comes with a somehow ridiculous 66:06 in overall length – oh yes, this Ville Valo is a really evil guy.The lyrics:Two out of four compositions have texts and they appear not only on the homepage but also in the digipack; this album has no booklet. Written in a rather free style, they rather tend to tell some sort of story whose content the listener has to explore rather than experiencing or understanding it by mere listening to the tunes. The background of the release is rather narrow – Warhammer 40K; life and death – but covers a topic a lot of bands rarely touch.The music:Yes, if you believe it or not, some words will also be spent on the core aspect of every music album: was this art well crafted and how fits everything together? Let us discuss the tracks separately:1. Celestial Hive MindThe idea behind this track is the race of the Tyranid, whom some might know from the Warhammer 40K universe. It is also possible to play them in the Dawn of War II edition of the video game. A mere glance on the pictures of them lets a person shudder, because their looks remind on a nightmare that has become flesh. Worse than Orcs and definitely more vicious, they are a species with an unquenchable hunger and thirst. They ravage galaxy after galaxy and with no end in sight.Rostau wrote about their existence and life in some detail, but the actual style of the music proves to be of a kind that might come as surprise. While a black metal band would most certainly have interpreted this emphasis on war and destruction as a welcome invitation to unleash a barrage of brutal riffs on the listener, played on a high tempo and accompanied by an ultra fast doublebass thunderstorm, this Italian band did something entirely different. Melancholic or even sad are two terms appropriate to describe the performance here. The music is quite calm – doomy some may say or even depressive – and not really heavy or even metal. Slightly distorted guitars play a simple tune – later a lead-guitar joins in –, drums add a nice and slow beat, the vocals appear now and then with some hissing and murmuring, while the background a vaguely discernable drone\u002Fambient texture enriches the music with a nice space-like atmosphere.2. Ahriman of the Thousand SonsA stark difference between the tracks exists and it takes only a few second to reveal this. It is not only the overall sound that creates a deeper and lasting impression, it is the change in the style and the way the music is presented that might leave a listener baffled about what is going on in this track. Not only is there a change to black\u002Fdeath metal – again played in a slow fashion –, the overall concept has put a clearer emphasis on the vocals here. So much that the role of each facet of the music seems to have been reversed.To make explain the contents of the music and how the lyrics fit into this a bit easier, a quote from the band’s homepage can really help to clear matters up a bit:The focus of the song is the ritual, starting with the solo guitars and keyboards in the central part and proceeding with the dark invocation of Ahriman chanting I know your Ways, oh Changer of Ways...(Source: https:\u002F\u002Fwww.rostaudoom.com\u002F_notes.htm#2)A good amount of insights can also be gained from this site:https:\u002F\u002Fwarhammer40k.wikia.com\u002Fwiki\u002FAhrimanThis track has a metal feeling – guitars and vocals –, but the concept has not shifted much. Rostau prefers this slow and very dark type of music. A slighter impact can be identified in the keyboards, whose part was somehow lessened for this track and they only appear rather seldom but then in a more accentuated and clearer way. Interestingly, while the first part of this composition has quite an aggressive touch, the end comes with this melancholic style again.3. To Die and to the Stars AscendRostau described this track in the following way:The song is clearly divided in 3 sections. The first is a symbol of life, the central represents the process of dying, and the last stands for the first stages of death.The following is important to note: this track is an instrumental and it sounds this way. Long passages, a lot of repetition and a mixture of doom metal with drone and ambient influences would sum up the impressions succinctly. The way the arrangements work together remind on a long outro. Melancholy and uncertainty are expressed in the music. Passages remind on the American band Earth and fans of this group might want to give this track a try.Life – Dying – Death, these are the three parts in which this track was divided and it is up to the second one to take up the major part of it. Interesting are the similarities between the first and the last segment. Echoes of the world of the living are hovering in the air, similar to the soul as the physical sphere comes close to breathe for the very last time. Two further references should be given:The Platonian belief that a soul, whose ascension to the heavens failed, returns to the source of its earthen origin again and has to remain there for 10.000 years. Death in its broadest sense becomes a struggle and is not a simple form of relief; which is the common idea of the Judeo-Christian myth.Reincarnation, for what Hinduism has become somehow famous for.Death does not necessarily have to be associated with an end, because it was also described as a new beginning and one more step into a new existence.4. 3.33.333The weirdest of all tracks is the last one. Even though the listener might suspect otherwise, for the recording of this track real guitars were used. In case someone is interested in the whole background and process of creating 3.33.333, the homepage of the band is a good source for finding the necessary information. Lovecraftian, this might sum the impression on this performance up in some respect. Challenging layers of noise, odd and somehow disturbing noise elements, electronic manipulations as well as dronish facets in the background are facets of this short track. It would be not far fetched to describe the last track as a counterpoint to the previous tracks.To sum the impressions up a bit:To Die and to the Stars Ascend is a complex album, whose content wants to be explored by the listener. Vitally important is the use of headphones while listening to it, because otherwise facets like background textures might slip the listener’s attention. Yet my general point of criticism holds true for this one as well. Just imagine you have nothing but the files at hand, then the intentions of the band remain hidden; not every homepage will be archived for good. It is this aspect that leaves a slightly bitter taste, but the overall perception of the release is nothing but very positive. Somehow the old phrase of “nomen est omen” applies to this work. Get this release and turn up the volume. Fill the air and the void with the sounds of the Italian band. Give the waves a chance to ascend to this black space that surrounds our small planet.Note:【oneyoudontknow】An in-depth interview can be found in the 13th edition of my magazine:https:\u002F\u002Fwww.archive.org\u002Fdetails\u002FADeadSpotOfLight...Number13Final note:This release can either be downloaded from the band’s homepage (Mp3s + jpg files but without explanation) or bought from Rostau for a surprisingly small amount of money. Moreover, the homepage has some quite positive words on spreading the art via p2p networks.Based on a review originally written for ‘A dead spot of light (Number 8)’:https:\u002F\u002Fwww.archive.org\u002Fdetails\u002FADeadSpotOfLight...number8