Horizons

In a restless search for new opportunities and new ways of living
The mystery and the promise of distant horizons
Always have called men forward

Where The Skies End intro, quote from To New Horizons

Over a decade ago, I watched a gaming montage featuring the song My Demons by a newly formed band called Starset. I didn't know it back then, but they would one day become my favorite. Its frontman, Dustin Bates, a PhD in electrical engineering and former U.S. Air Force researcher, created the band to combine his interests in science and music.

Bates self-describes their music as cinematic rock, blending symphonics with electronics with guitar hard rock. The symphonics appear in form of through-composed outros with adventurous and space-travel-like melodies. Unfortunately, they have become less frequent in newer releases. The lyrics cover everything from love, space and sci-fi to the dystopian use of technology in authoritarian societies.

Their latest album, Horizons, was released on October 22, 2021. Since then, it has become an important and ever-present part of my life. I want to use this post as an opportunity to dive deeper into the creative direction and music of this masterpiece. This isn't my area of expertise, so expect some rough edges.

Creative Direction

Something Starset has nailed since its inception is the creative direction. They publish lots of supplemental material and Bates even authored two novels, The PROX Transmissions and A Brief History of the Future, fleshing out the Starset universe. Music videos take place inside of it, and fans often comment about wanting an entire movie. There exists a Google Doc summarizing all the lore, but to be honest, I don't really care about that kind of stuff. I'm here for the music.

Speaking of which, the first single of Horizons to be released was Infected. At that point, nobody knew there was a new album in the works. The cover artwork features a different visual style compared to the following singles. It has a scanned-paper-like appearance, doesn't use the outlined Starset wordmark, uses less kerning for the title and doesn't match the color scheme of the others.

The album promotion began five months later with The Breach, continued with Leaving This World Behind and ended with Earthrise. These singles have a very coherent cover artwork style, despite being visually distinct and identifiable. For them and the whole album, Starset teamed up with Brandon Rike, co-founder of Tension Division, who served as the creative director and lead designer for popular bands like Twenty One Pilots, Korn and Weezer.

Font

The font used on covers and other media is called Axion RND. It features rounded and futuristic-looking characters with a small height difference between uppercase and lowercase ones. That probably influenced the decision to capitalize all text, something I'm usually opposed to. I dislike words SCREAMING at me, but it does look good on covers.

Artwork

While cover artworks might appear supplemental to the musical experience, they are of great importance to me. Thought-trough covers stand out from an endless sea of mediocrity and capture attention. If you find one that resonates with you, it's almost impossible to not listen to the album. That's the feeling I had, and still have, with the cover of Horizons. It is one of my favorites, if not the favorite. Its vinyl version is used as a decorative piece between the speakers in my living room and sparks joy every time I notice it.

It features the side profile of a female head. Its back fades into the nothingness of space, while the face is enlightened by the mystery that unravels in front of her. The eyes look up towards the sky, where the stars and wider universe reside. The fading colors make it seem like she is either consumed by or connecting with what's in front of her. The three white dots near her temple are almost perfectly centered and represent the brain machine interface, a part of dystopian Starset lore.

The colors wonderfully express the feeling of space for me. Black and dark blue represent the emptiness, nothingness and mystery of space. Electric blue, pink and purple reflect the immense energy of the forces acting throughout it. Orange and red add some sense of warmth, while the dark red introduces an element of danger and the unknown. The grainy and noisy texture used in all Horizons media helps with the raw, powerful and imperfect aesthetic.

Music

This post was inspired by my admiration for the creative direction. It's great in isolation, but the quality of music elevates it to another level. Horizons is on the longer side of albums and consists of 16 songs, including one short instrumental intro. In it, Starset continue to experiment with their sound, something they have done ever since their inception:

1. Transmissions established the classic Starset formula: cinematic rock with orchestral elements and sci-fi-inspired themes. Some songs end with through-composed outros that turn them into experiences. Tracks like My Demons and It Has Begin continue to be among their most well-known work.
2. Vessels refines the sound of Transmissions. It improves everything great from its predecessor and smooths out some of the rough edges, especially in terms of production. They released a deluxe version a year later, which includes some of the best instrumental versions I've every heard.
3. Divisions deviates from the classic Starset formula by having a more futuristic sound design with heavy industrial influences. The narrative takes a leap forward in terms of storytelling and discusses dystopian themes like surveillance, human-machine integration and oppressive systems. It contains my two favorites songs: Where The Skies End and Perfect Machine.
4. Horizons, on the other hand, is much more introspective and emotionally driven. It's polished, melodic, calm and has a pop-style production, making it more accessible to newer audiences while still retaining the cinematic rock identity.

When listening to music, I tend to focus on the musical aspects instead of the lyrics. To me, a melodic, powerful chorus makes a good song. Lyrics play a background role, which is a shame, because I've seen comments comparing Starset's lead vocalist Dustin Bates to a human thesaurus. So I took this post as an opportunity to analyze some of my favorites.

Otherworldly

Otherworldly is a prime example for the emotional lyrics and pop-style production of Horizons. Like most songs on the album, it follows the ABABCB structure (verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus). It's a classic love song in which the narrator describes the feelings for his partner.

The song culminates in probably the best bridge of the album:

I wanna become lucid
Clear, just like a window
I tried so hard to open up
And show you what's behind it
But you didn't need to hear me
'Cause you were supraliminal
Knew me without an uttered word
You always seemed to know me

An ethereal feeling
That I cannot describe
The way that I feel you
Something that I cannot hide
How you illuminate
In a profound way, I feel your space
I can't explain this place you're taking me

Its spoken outro foreshadows the next song:

And he told him
"Beware, do not fly too close to the sun
The blaze will surely melt those wings."
But alas, he fell
His cries, swallowed by the sea

Icarus

An energetic song about a figure in Greek mythology. Icarus and his father Daedalus were imprisoned by King Minos and constructed wings from beeswax and bird feathers to escape. Daedalus warned his son to not fly too close to the sun, but he fell from the sky, plunged into the sea, and drowned. The lyrics explore the character flaws of Icarus, which led to his eventual downfall — pun intended.

Fell out of the air and you broke your wings
Like you're doing every other time
Made a new pair out of broken things
To give it all another try

The song starts with Icarus falling from the sky yet again, but he is determined to keep trying. He builds a new pair of wings from broken things, hinting that he himself might be broken and that, without fixing himself first, he will never be able to achieve what he is striving for.

And you climb right up to the highest peaks
And reach out to the edge of the world you seek
Afraid of heights so you don't believe
You could ever be good enough

Filled with false pride, he is unwilling to learn and faces the hardest challenges without a solid foundation. He feels compelled to seek greatness but is simultaneously afraid of it, feeling inherently unworthy.

Head in the clouds
Buried your feet in thе ground
Telling yourself it's the world that holds you down

He stands on the highest peaks with his head in the clouds, while simultaneously burring his feet in the ground. He tells himself that the weight of the whole world is holding him back instead of recognizing that it is he himself.

But you've got your chin held high
And your chest pumped up
The replica of a runner-up
You were made for skies but you called your bluff
Now you'll never be good enough

He acts tough and confident because he is Icarus, the son of master craftsman Daedalus. He was made for skies, but doesn't even believe it himself. Instead, he will always be the replica of a runner-up, destined to be second, and never be good enough.

Go on then, Icarus, take your turn
You always fly right up until it burns
Your wings you never could change
Always the victim, into the flames again
Go on then, Icarus, take your turn
You'll never go through thеm

He refuses to change and repeats the same mistakes over and over again but blames the world around him for his failure — always the victim.

Earthrise

Earthrise is named after a famous picture taken by Willam Anders during the Apollo 8 space mission, the first crewed voyage to orbit the moon. The original image was rotated by 95 degrees to better convey the sense of the Earth rising over the moonscape.

I push my feet to the edge
I look and I face my world
This lonely scene, I take it in
It's hard to say where all of it begins and I end

The song starts with the description of a lonely person. It's a beautiful metaphor given the context of the Earthrise image. The feeling of loneliness emerging in oneself while standing on the moon's desolate surface and looking back at Earth is probably something most people can imagine.

I walk these streets of loneliness
A tranquil sea on all horizons
This empty scene of might-have-beens
I stare at starless skies that call to me and I still wish

The narrator is surrounded by deserted streets and a tranquil sea on all horizons, trapped inside an empty scene of endless, unmaterialized possibilities. Staring at and being called upon by starless skies implies loneliness and hopelessness, but despite that he hasn't given up.

And I waited for the sky to change but, oh, it never did
And I almost dropped my head and lost my faith
Then I saw you from a distance, you were worlds away
Oh, but you had me from the vision, I never looked away again

He has almost lost faith, but ends up falling in love with a person worlds away. This could either be meant literally, as in "distance," or metaphorically, as in "out of his league".

I still fall for you like suns do for skies
Cerulean pouring in from your eyes
Just a hollow moon that you colorize
So powerful, I feel so small but so alive
Like watching the Earth rise

The chorus opens with a beautiful wordplay on falling in love and sunsets. It then continues mentioning the hollow moon, a pseudoscientific hypotheses by sci-fi writer H. G. Wells about the moon's interior being inhabited by aliens. It might be a metaphor for the narrator feeling empty and hollow himself. The void is then filled and the grey moon colorized by cerulean, a sky blue color, possibly referring to the eye color of this love interest.

They said that we both were too different
That all of the shine would fade away
But I wish that I never listened
'Cause you pulled me through the grey

The narrator regrets listening to others calling the relationship impossible and doomed to fail because it was the only thing filling his grey, monotonous life with color and worth living.

Disappear

Disappear is a hauntingly sad song and explores the end of a relationship.

So how long were you numb?
'Cause it was cold as ice
And I keep saying that I'm okay with it
But that's another lie
The truth is I've been dying slowly

The narrator is finding himself in a one-sided relationship. His partner doesn't return his affection and instead acts emotionally numb and cold as ice. He tricks himself into thinking that this behavior is okay, but knows deep down that it's just another lie, which is going to ruin him.

But no, not you, you just
Turned to drift into the night
A parting scene of apathy
In an instant shift to a
Stone heart, paired with empty eyes
That stared right through mine

His partner, on the other hand, is completely indifferent to the whole situation. The loss of love seems to have happened in an instant. Their heart turned to stone, and the empty, emotionless eyes stare right through our narrator, not even acknowledging his existence.

I tried so hard just to
Make you feel my pain
If you had empathy, you'd see I'd changed
But like a ghost in your presence, I dissipate
I tried it all, it's all in vain

The partner is described as having no empathy. The narrator tried to rekindle their relationship, but ended up failed. If you had empathy, you'd see I'd changed hints that he might be at fault, but this theory isn't explored further.

Sometimes, I still slip
And start to question if
It was only in my mind
It's hard to come to grips
That you still exist
When it feels just like you died

The narrator is losing his mind. The whole situation doesn't feel real to him. The pain is so great that it feels like mourning a dead person, despite his partner still being alive.

So come one and all
Step right up and I'll
Perform a trick before your eyes
I'll evaporate
Gone without a trace
Off the radar, out of sight

The ended relationship is affecting the narrator horrendously and drives him to consider suicide. The song ends with the words I disappear, disappear and leaves little room for interpretation. After that, the music goes quiet for while and is then followed by the only through-composed outro of the album. Its adventurous sound gives hope for a better ending to the narrator's story.

This Endless Endeavor

This Endless Endeavor starts out strong with a memorable guitar riff and heavy drums. The energy quickly subsides, and the song continues to alternate between calm, saddening verses and a haunting chorus. The lyrics explore the loss, death or otherwise, of an important individual, possibly continuing the narrative of Disappear.

I separate
Into the arms of the broken
Accept this fate
Exposed to the world in the open
To drift from all I know

The first verse describes the moments following a tragic event. The narrator is emotionally torn apart, separated, by what happened and resigns to the pain by falling into the arms of the broken. He accepts his fate but feels vulnerable because he is exposed to the whole world, out in the open for everyone to see. This causes him to drift away from friends and family, reinforcing the feeling of loss, disconnection and isolation.

Lonely wade
Out to the depths of an ocean
A castaway
I suffer the death of emotion
Between the waves of woe

The isolation overwhelms our narrator. He goes on a lonely wade out to the ocean and ends up shipwrecked. Emotionally numb with only the waves of woe crashing against the broken remains of the ship that he used to call himself.

I get lost in the world sometimes
Star-crossed, looking out for a light but it won't shine
So, North Star come, North Star come
In the wake of my own confines
I will wait for the day you call through the skylines
And I'll be waiting, I'll be waiting

He is lost in the world. Star-crossed, destined to fail, and looking out for a light. A North Star to guide him through the rest of his life. Despite the chances being slim, he is filled with hope to one day reconnect with his significant other once again.

(Oh-Woah, Oh-Woah) I'm gone without you
(Oh-Woah, Oh-Woah) Could it be forever?
(Oh-Woah, Oh-Woah) Go on without you
(Oh-Woah, Oh-Woah) This endless endeavor

The narrator doesn't feel whole without his partner and fears that he has to go on this endless endeavor alone.

Something Wicked

The album ends with Something Wicked. Previous outro songs tended to be on the quieter side, and this one is no exception until its climax. It begins calm with just a piano and then layers in strings and other instruments over the next verses. It doesn't adhere to the ABABCB song structure and instead feels like a carefully crafted narrative of a person slowly being overwhelmed by an unknown evil.

The crucifix in my hand's a lie
'Cause nothing ever kills you
I've watered down the pain 'til the well went dry
So pray for rain

The lyrics are littered with biblical references. The narrator describes the thing inside of him as so profoundly evil, that even a crucifix can't kill it. He tried everything in his power to stop it, but had to resign eventually. So pray for rain is a warning that only a divine intervention can prevent him from losing control and a sign of things to come.

And it clawеd
Back in the world again
Here for a nеw revenge
An enemy I can't condemn

It isn't the first confrontation between the two. The thing is coming back for a new revenge, having lost the fight once before. The narrator is unsure how to feel about it. On one hand, he describes it as an enemy, something he hates and doesn't want in his life. On the other hand, he can't condemn it, feeling like its existence is justified — a natural part of himself.

As we enter the bridge, the song turns from calm to violent:

Out of myself, I can feel it crawling
How can I tell if this is the ending?
Out of myself, it began evolving
I am not well, repent, I'm guilty
How can I tell if the sky is falling?
How can I fix what there is no mending?
How can I tell if I am not well?
I've lost myself, I have come undone

And all of the horses
And all of the men
Won't put it back in place
Or bury it where it had been
When all of the forces
Have been overrun
You'll whisper, serpent tongue
What you fear you have become

After that, the silence returns and a piano starts playing. The narrator has lost the fight with his inner darkness. The album concludes with the whispered words Something wicked this way comes, a theme that has been referenced in a newer single:

Lock your windows, close your doors and hide
Something wicked has got inside

Symbolism

I included the symbol of each song at the end. Starset began designing them back in Divisions. Lots of fans got tattoos of their favorite ones. The lyrics of a song and the symbol often go hand in hand. Some are obvious, while others leave room for interpretation. I invite the reader to decode them.

Fin

Finally, it's out of my system. This was a hard post to write, especially given my lack of music theory knowledge. Interpretation wasn't a strength back in school and still isn't to this day. At least there isn't a teacher to tell me how my opinion is wrong. Writing it gave me a whole new appreciation for the album and its lyrics and cemented it as one of my all-time favorites.

In a search that has continued for centuries
Some far distant view
With this promise of the unseen
And it's promise of the unknown
Has forever fathered the impulse
To seek for new things in new places
New horizons

Where The Skies End outro, quote from To New Horizons