Above image via Instagram: @cxband_pittsburgh
Giovanni Mori | Posted January 17th, 2025
Music sounds better when it’s local. Sure you can listen to current chart toppers like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, or Charlie XCX anytime, but passionate listeners will agree supporting local musicians from their city is a different feeling. Today’s local band is Constellation X, an elite progressive metal band consisting of guitarists and vocalists Mark DelBianco and Ash Haughey, bassist and vocalist Pete Rauch, and drummer Josiah Hudok.
Earlier this month on January 3rd, Constellation X released their first full length album, Quasar, and performed the album in its entirety during their soul-stirring release show at Pittsburgh’s Bottlerocket Social Hall. That same weekend, I had a chance to sit with three out of the four members, Delbianco, Haughey, and Hudok, to talk about the music and their process in working as band. Having already worked together on previous music projects, Haughey and Rauch came up with the initial idea to “make something a bit heavier than what we were doing,” which would officially become Quasar before DelBianco’s and Hudok’s arrival.
Musically, Haughey also pointed out wanting to provide an easy listening experience to segue fans into progressive music, sometimes shortened as “prog,” as the jazz inspired genre is characteristic of odd time signatures, longer song length, and unconventional song structure.
“You hear some prog stuff that seems a little self indulgent, and I think we really wanted to avoid going that route, so one of my favorite things that we used to think about when writing this was ‘Diet Prog,’ where it’s a little easier to digest, it’s a little less complicated, but it’s still in its essence progressive metal/metalcore.”
Above image via Instagram: @cxband_pittsburgh
It’s important to note Quasar is a concept album, so not only does it allow fans of heavy music to lose themselves in their favorite genre, it also tells a tragic story when listened from start to finish. This story is about Earth facing an energy crisis, and revolves around three main characters, The Scientist, The Medic, and The Captain, going on a space mission to find a planet that can sustain habitable life, as well as a luminescent star called Quasar.
New listeners will be pleased to find how the album, according to the band, “weaves the music around the narrative of the story” with each peak and valley our characters go through. One way they do this, which is uncommon among most bands, is by utilizing their three vocalists (Haughey, DelBianco, and Rauch), to portray each character, adding to the listening experience as we hear different voices, new perspectives, and ultimately reinvigorating the album’s narrative.
For a better album listening experience, I recommend listening to Quasar in full before reading. The album clocks in at around one hour and ten minutes, so strap yourselves in, because this is going to be one deep dive.
Track 1: Anxious
Youtube: Constellation X – Topic
The first track, “Anxious,” sets the scene for the listener as we hear a spacey sounding guitar part written by DelBianco. It’s the shortest track on the album, but it eventually builds itself with faint radio chatter and echoed drumming and cymbal hits in the background.
DelBianco: “Ash and Pete kind of just told me to just make like a Slipknot kind of intro…I just messed around and just did like a simple little shape and held it out, put a bunch of effects on it to give it that body, and that was kind of it. The spoken work stuff and the drums, that all came later because initially it was going to just be me, but we decided to add more to it.”
The addition of each layer in this instrumental track is enough to give us goosebumps, and makes us feel like we’re literally in that rocket ship with our three characters ready to launch on this mission. Narratively, it sets the tone for the rest of the album as the characters prepare to embark on their dangerous mission to save Earth despite the low chances of survival.
Hudok: “Ultimately, there’s not really a choice of whether to go or not, it’s either stay and die, or go and probably die.”
track 2: voyagers
Youtube: Constellation X – Topic
We then cut to “Voyagers,” the album’s second track and first official song, check out the official music video above!
After a suspenseful introduction, “Voyagers” immediately drops us into the action with a sludge metal riff reminiscent of bands like The Melvins and Kyuss. When asked about their process of writing a song and creating a desired sound for each track, here’s what they had to say:
Haughey: “Back in the day, there were two bands that I had listened to fairly consistently whenever I wrote the first draft of this song, which I think the only thing that stayed was that main riff. The bands that I was heavily influenced by were Dorje and Black Orchid Empire, and that was how the first draft of that was created.”
DelBianco: “Sometimes we’ll reference bands, it’s not like ‘We need this song to sound like Haken, we need this song to sound like Mastodon,’ we kind of, for the most part, let the four of us just go wild just to see what happens. Half the time when we’re in rehearsal, we’re just trying stuff and seeing if it sticks.”
But as it turns out, the band pulls just as much influence from multiple different directions outside of their favorite rock and metal bands, and even focus themselves more in the pop direction when creating a catchy tune. I later had a chance to ask Rauch separately about his pop influences and how they work well with progressive metal music.
“I was pretty young when I realized that there were two types of songs I liked: there were the ones that I liked in the moment when I was listening to them, and then there were the ones that I remembered the next day, and whenever I write a song I really try to get it into that latter camp. I try to find something that’s going to stick with you long after the listening session has ended, like finding something for the listener to take with them when they go.
“Learning from those experiences and listening to a wide array of music, like I listen to a lot of late 90s to early 2000s power pop music, that’s a lot of my influence, bands like Fountains of Wayne, The Click Five, Phantom Planet, taking examples of those sorts of melodies and incorporating that into the music.”
Haughey: “Another album I would say is Songs About Jane from Maroon 5…It’s writing a hook, it’s writing something catchy, and it’s also not over staying your welcome. But I think the biggest thing is writing a good melody makes a song work.”
The song gives listeners a well rounded mix including 90s inspired sludge, blood curdling death metal screams over heavy low chords, and a beautiful three part harmony in the song’s bridge section. The song was also completed later in the songwriting process when Hudok joined, which when listening to his drum fills like the one before the bridge section, it’s obvious that his skill level works extremely well for the band’s chemistry.
Photo by Giovanni Mori
As far as the album’s story goes, it provides more of an exposition for our characters, who they are, and what their mindset is as they embark on their journey. The Medic is played by DelBianco, the song’s second verse explains his role as someone his crew needs to depend on for survival – “Pulse pounding, too many miles above, job to do, their lives in my shaking hands” (4:17-4:28).
Haughey’s character is The Captain, which according to them, “You hear in the pre choruses, ‘There’s so much I’ve left behind,’ is like my character’s struggle with ‘Do you spend the last years of your life with your loved ones and your family, or do you spend them trying to save the world?’…In the bridge section, the first lyric in it is, ‘Sometimes I feel I don’t want to lead,’ so he’s anxious about having to hold all of this responsibility in his hands…he’s the commander of this mission and he’s terrified.”
Rauch’s character is The Scientist which Haughey described as “…overconfident and completely doubtful of himself. So he has the chorus which is ‘We are voyagers exploring what’s above us, it’s like we’re foragers for data to discuss,’ and that whole lyric is him saying ‘This is going to work, I have to make this work,’ so there’s like a certain amount of desperation in that character, but also a certain amount of ego.”
When the three part harmony comes around, it becomes clear to the listener what their collective mindset is, “Sometimes I feel like we should keep moving forward, we’ll keep moving forward,” all while we hear punchy backing vocals chanting “There and back and there and back and…” (7:02-7:30).
track 3: mapping stars
Youtube: Constellation X – Topic
“Mapping Stars” picks up right where “Voyagers” leaves off, the intro section taking its time with a groovy bass solo, massive chords, and building tom hits turning the page for listeners. We suddenly pick up the tempo into heavier guitar riffs, louder and faster harsh vocals, and later, a powerful chorus section that’ll leave you awestruck. Quasar’s third track feels more inspired by modern metal acts like Gojira and Machine Head.
DelBianco: “I think we were just like looking to keep the pace up…we just kind of turned this one into a banger, you know? We weren’t trying to get too crazy with this one.”
Our three part harmony comes back in the bridge section, but unlike the one in “Voyagers,” this section places the vocals more front and center instead of surrounding them with heavy guitars and loud drums, highlighting each vocalist’s musical ability.
This chapter for our characters now takes the listener to the point of no return. We are now in the thick of our journey, and while our characters are still dealing with their inner turmoil, it’s very thrilling for them at the same time when listening to the song’s opening lyrics “Mission statement looking from afar, as Earth gets smaller I lose where we are, something, burning deep, within my soul” (2:13-2:23).
Haughey: “There’s some positive vibes in this song, a little bit of excitement for what we’re about to do, and determination to make it through this ordeal…The song is about anticipation, a little bit of nervousness, and then excitement, and kind of like where our characters are with all that.”
track 4: under control
Youtube: Constellation X – Topic
We now approach “Under Control,” which instantly becomes a great change of pace in the album’s flow from heavy screams and roaring instrumentals to slower and soothing whispers, melodies, and intricate timing of each instrument reminiscent of a Tool song. DelBianco, credited as the primary songwriter for this track, said “Most of the time, it does start with one person bringing it, but in the case of this song, I just made like three sections and brought them in, and that was the song. One rehearsal I was told ‘You take the lead on this one,’ then I just brought back a bunch of guitar parts.”
What separates this track from the rest is the lack of vocals, which works in the band’s favor as it becomes apparent how the dark instrumentals are telling just as much of the story as the lyrics, when asked if this was intentional, DelBianco and Hudok said:
DelBianco: “I usually write on guitar, so I’ve made a lot of, not intricate, but I guess front and center kind of melodies. There’s some parts that maybe are missing vocals, but I guess I was trying to let the texture of the guitars and just like the music itself tell it rather than the voice.
“Ash and Pete I think are far more focused on vocals than I am because of like a lot of the post rock and prog I listen to, a lot of that is pushed by just instrumentals. No like idea or conceptual thing with words and meaning, just all instruments. Everything hits the reptilian part of your brain, you know? You don’t have to think about it, you just kind of let it hit you sort of thing, and this song just kind of ended up staying that way.”
Hudok: “With all the weird stuff going on in this song, when all the parts are moving at the same time and it’s like ‘Oh here’s a little vocal hook and then a melody on top of that,’ it just doesn’t really work, it kind of makes your brain tired of listening to it. So when you start off the song with those nice guitar chords and then you get into a bit of like a seven groove and you just build it up and let things sit, I think that works really nicely especially for a longer song.”
Photo by Giovanni Mori
This song is the first of what the band called the “character songs,” which goes more in depth on how each character’s personal struggles, desires, and fears affect them on their mission. “Under Control” looks through the point of view of The Scientist, which we remember him being described in “Voyagers” as overconfident, calculated, but overall doubtful, track four captures his “…coldness and arrogance as well as his uncertainty.” Haughey continues:
“So you can kind of hear this ‘I see nothing new, just another stretch of void, all I’ve ever wanted was to feel more than an android’ is like a comment to The Scientist’s, as a character, cold and almost sociopathic demeanor towards a lot of it, but then you get this flip in the song when it gets to the next section which is ‘I can’t blame my own two hands for all that I have done,’ that section being as in like a reflective and kind of more caring side of this character that kind of develops throughout the record.”
Fans will agree the song works very well within The Scientist’s character, not only by how precise each note and rhythm is in the song’s odd time signatures and many key changes, but the listener will also feel that coldness building more with each brooding chord, taking us all the way to an immense post rock outro section. By the end, you are guaranteed to be thrashing away on air guitar or drums all the way through to the last second.
track 5: sudden disquiet
Youtube: Constellation X – Topic
Quasar’s fifth track, “Sudden Disquiet,” is one of the band’s most important songs musically. Not only was it Constellation X’s first single previously released in mid December 2024, but it was also the first of many experiences for the band.
Haughey: “This was the first song ever written for the record, Pete and I wrote Sudden in I think twenty minutes. And then we wrote the lyrics sitting in an Eat’n Park in Dormont, sent them to Mark, and then that was Mark’s first singing experience with the record. When Josiah came in, we sent him a few demos…and ‘Sudden Disquiet’ was the first one that he got back to us…we were like ‘Oh, this is the guy, for sure,’ because it finally became what we thought it was. It was stompy, it was heavy, it was just something that makes people move.”
The song brings back the band’s heavier side with a blend of harsh and clean vocals, deafening drums, and an unforgettable guitar riff, which invokes a visceral reaction not only among fans, but among other aspiring musicians and guitarists as well.
DelBianco: “I think we decided to stop in a Guitar Center…and we were like ‘Let’s play Sudden, why not? There’s two of us, we’re both hooked in, let’s do it,’ and there were two people in there who were like ‘That is the coolest riff I’ve heard like ever!’”
The difference in length between the mostly instrumental “Under Control” clocking in at nearly ten minutes versus the length of “Sudden Disquiet” at only just over four minutes led me to ask, “At what point do you guys decide a song is complete? When do you put the pen down and feel like ‘This song has said everything that I needed to say for my characters?’”
Haughey: “We are constantly changing things, and I think the only song that was just one and done after the harmonies got added was ‘Voyagers.’ Every other song on the record got tweaked over several years…I will say kind of offhandedly that could sometimes be at one’s detriment, because you end up tweaking too much and you end up changing too much, and the original version of the song was better the way it was.”
DelBianco: “We have a live edit already in this song, in the bridge when I go to my guitar harmony, we already made a little edit to where it’s like Ash and Pete back off of the riff and I stay on it, and they follow Josiah’s kick.”
Hudok: “I’m always looking to tweak things, sometimes there are tweaks that are better than others, but I don’t think I’ve ever played these songs the same.”
Continuing with the character songs, Sudden explores The Medic’s perspective as our characters hit turbulence on their journey, which heightens the fear that if anything happens to his crew, it’s his job to save them, even in a seemingly hopeless situation. As listeners, we truly feel this fear listening to the brooding guitar work underneath panic-stricken lyrics, “Disaster strikes as we are blown off our track, is it too late now to turn back around? They only brought me here to save them, but there’s nothing I can do” (1:03-1:19).
track 6: am I coming home?
Youtube: Constellation X – Topic
Compared to the previous tracks, “Am I Coming Home?” is definitely the most somber, while also having the one of the most simple song structures from the progressive metal band, serving as another necessary change of pace midway through the album. Haughey takes the reins on this track as we only hear their voice and guitar through the first verse and chorus, and we eventually hear the inclusion of the other instruments as the song increases its heaviness into more of an arena rock sound.
What really shines the most here is the guitar work by Haughey and DelBianco trading lead parts, with DelBianco having his guitar enter after the first chorus with guitar effects that sounds like the instrument has been submerged underwater. DelBianco also takes the solo right before the last chorus which hits all the right notes and scratches that itch in the listener’s brain. We finally close with Haughey showing off some of their most technical ability on the instrument inspired by their personal favorite guitarists.
Haughey: “We played a show at the Smiling Moose…I had to improvise something and I played this little like Eric Johnson lick in the middle of the solo and I was like ‘Damn, that actually works,’ …I guess the synopsis for this solo is the weirdest guitar collaboration in all of history of Eric Johnson and Mark Holcomb maybe made a baby?”
“Am I Coming Home?” is the last of the three character songs and takes us through the perspective of Haughey’s character as The Captain. It seems as though he has the most at stake on this mission, and as the leader, is ironically the most fearful and emotional member of the crew.
Haughey: “The uncertainty and fear really starts to creep back into the characters’ minds, and especially in mine. I believe in the story, I am the only character who has a family to return to back home, so not only am I fighting to return to them and live through this incredibly difficult and dangerous journey, but I’m also fighting to save them because of the energy crisis that’s going on on Earth.
“A lot of the lines in this song kind of reflect that, and also reflect resentment towards the people who sent him on this mission…he looks back and I think one of the lines in the song is ‘The pawns think they are self aware, so ignorant they don’t know how big it really is out there, it’s so ginormous that even kings can’t outgrow.’ In the second verse where he’s thinking about his family, ‘I try to tell myself they think of me, but it’s been almost a year I bet I faded in their minds, they only have so much capacity, if they haven’t already they’ll forget about me in due time.’”
While it’s obviously one of the saddest songs created by the band, the track has grown to become a personal favorite among the members and audiences with the belief that this song will age the best in the band’s later years, and will soon have audiences singing along to the choruses and the woahs in the bridge.
By this point, we’re only a little over halfway through the album with still over thirty more minutes of music to go through. Listen to Quasar available now on all streaming platforms, and follow the band’s Instagram, @cxband_pittburgh, for more updates!
Sources
“Am I Coming Home?” Youtube, uploaded by Constellation X – Topic, 2 Jan. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYnl3QPjIRE
“Anxious” Youtube, uploaded by Constellation X – Topic, 2 Jan. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbVD5SvaC8A
Constellation X [@cxband_pittsburgh]. Album Cover, photographed by Mark DelBianco, Instagram, 29 Dec. 2024, https://www.instagram.com/p/DELqROPsHox/
Constellation X [@cxband_pittsburgh]. Band photo. Instagram, 2 Jan. 2025, https://www.instagram.com/p/DEWchaeswCC/
Constellation X [@cxband_pittsburgh]. Instagram Post. Instagram, photographed by Mark DelBianco, 7 Jan. 2025, https://www.instagram.com/p/DEi1yYAtTwB/
“Mapping Stars” Youtube, uploaded by Constellation X – Topic, 2 Jan. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ4SDtqCS2s
“Sudden Disquiet” Youtube, uploaded by Constellation X – Topic, 2 Jan. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=568i5VQHi4o
“Under Control” Youtube, uploaded by Constellation X – Topic, 2 Jan. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXK7tjUKyC4
“Voyagers (Official Music Video)” Youtube, uploaded by Constellation X – Topic, 27 Dec. 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoFh-Xg46mk
Leave a Reply