I was a little disappointed to find out that PLAGUE OF STARS is not a Black Metal Lovecraftian band. My disappointment was fleeting, though, when I discovered they’re a fusion of all things metal—Symph, Goth, Avant-garde, Black, Death—let’s just call it extreme metal. They feature both clean and harsh vocals, though not in the usual beauty and beast fashion—so again, breaking stereotypes. On January 31, 2025, they dropped their third full-length album, Extinction. Now on the WormHoleDeath label and showcasing a new vocalist, Liz Ziegler, this album is their heaviest yet. 

PLAGUE OF STARS hails from Minneapolis, US where they formed 13 years ago. You can almost feel the bleak frostiness of the environs permeate their music which is simultaneously ethereal and visceral. Extinction features nine tracks and has a full run time of over 45 minutes. Thematically, the album draws “inspiration from the fractured world.” The cover depicts a stone man collapsed in exhaustion on an expanse of ash, storm clouds churning behind him and evil spires of doom protruding evenly like fangs of some impossibly large subterranean beast—so, yeah, the general theme of extinction tracks.

The album opens with a gorgeous but brief acoustic (though clearly plugged in) intro, “Akerra,” with Liz hauntingly singing solo in the background. As if in contradiction to its 55-second opening statement, but also in a strange symbiosis, the album closes with a hefty ten-minute track, “Akelarre,” which reprieves the motif from “Akerra” before breaking out the Doom-laden boots of lead. The most complex track on the album, the song feels like a re-awakening—essentially signaling the potential for rebirth after extinction.

And then there are the six tracks between those two. While tracks like “Vain,” “False Reality,” and “Corporatocracy” are clear indictments of the modern system leading to the world’s demise, they’re packaged in well-executed metal. These aren’t Thrash socio-political lectures meant to drive the listeners to revolt, but rather thoughtful compositions crafted to make us think and feel. These more modern takes are countered with tracks that hearken to an older, perhaps ancient order: “Gods of Old” and “Sentinels.” The clash between the modern system vs. the ancient order then lead to “Extinction” and “Shift,” and ultimately that reawakening I mentioned. That’s my reading anyway. I could be totally off and the whole album might actually be about unrequited love . . . but not likely.

I should also mention that the track “Extinction” features former vocalist, Melissa Ferlaak, so that’s kind of cool. Not going to read anything into that. Clearly, it’s more about what track was recorded when. It’s also the title track, so yeah, cool.

Altogether a solid album. WormHoleDeath has a knack for finding unsigned exceptional talent skulking around in the metalsphere and PLAGUE OF STARS is another one of them. Extinction is an excellent find for extreme metal fans who have a liking for dark Symph.