‘The Age of Aquarius’ is Kent’s sixth album and his debut with the major metal label Nuclear Blast Records. When I hear the phrase the age of Aquarius, I can’t help but think of that seventies hit form the musical ‘Hair’, but that says maybe more about my own age than anything else. All joking aside, the age of Aquarius is what is called an astrological age, one that specifically marks a time of spiritual, social and technological change, marking a shift from the “me” to “we” as a global consciousness. It is often associated with the hippie movement from the sixties and early seventies.

So this should be a feelgood, really positive album with an optimistic outlook on the future right? Right? Well no, this is Perturbator. We don’t do happy here and that becomes apparent from the very start already with the opening track ‘Apocalypse Now’.

While his music is usually a purely instrumental affair, Kent does occasionally bring in a guest vocalist. On his new album he even makes quite a habit out of it. On his opening salvo he has brought in Ulver who lends his very unique, yet immediately recognizable voice to this deceptively calm intro into the world of Aquarius.

Next up is ‘Lunacy’ which cruises along much more familiar neon lighted highways to the point that could have been a cut from any of his classic albums. In this sense he has dialed back his departure from the cybersynth of yore just a little bit. You do want to keep a bit of solid ground with your fanbase after you’ve jumped to a bigger label. ‘Venus’ brings in another guest and this time it is none other than Tristan Shone, the man behind the industrial doom of Author & Punisher. Together they have crafted a brooding post apocalyptic soundscape. No cover from Shocking Blue for sure.

By the fourth track, the album seems to have settled in a pattern of alternating vocal tracks with a more upbeat instrumental one. Point in case being ‘The Glass Staircase’. So next up I was expecting ‘Hangover Square’ to feature some vocals again, but no. Getting a curveball here. It’s a short interlude, whose subdues ambience made me think of Vangelis soundtrack for the original Blade Runner movie, which is of course as cyberpunk as you can get. ‘The Art of War’ then was the first track teased for this record.

‘12^th House’ sounds like a lost rave track from the nineties, that was locked away in an abandoned warehouse for thirty years.  Time for another guest appearance right? With Lady Moon’ we get the grand return of Greta Link who did the vocals on one his most well-known songs ‘Venger’. Now the song is far from a rehash of that fan favorite. Her voice is of course unmistakable, but this one is much more slow burning with an unsettling tension, crawling underneath, that is always just on the verge of snapping.

‘The Swimming Pool’ is not the recreative, chill track you might expect it to be. Especially not with the movie excerpt at the end. ‘Mors Ultima Ratio’, which is Latin for ‘Death is the last reckoning’, brings us back to a very visually evocative scene. I can just imagine myself in a car chase being hunted by the T1000. The title track marks the end of this age. For this grand closure he has brough in Neige from the shoegaze black metal forerunners Alcest. It sprawling ten minute track framed by Neige’s trademark croonings. It very much sounds like an actual end credits scene which is pretty apt for such a cinematic record.

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