When guitarist Terry Bickers left The House Of Love shortly after their first album it seemed that he would go on to great things. It was rather disappointing that since then he has failed to achieve former glories; Levitation demonstrated that he could play the guitar well but also that he was prone to prog-rock excesses; showing-off, basically. Dark Star offer quite a similar sound with the same line-up as Levitation minus Bickers himself. Guitars are loud and feature complex chord changes but often lack the vital melody which the early House of Love tracks featured in abundance. Dark Star's first album does have a few good moments; most notably the dramatic 'I Am The Sun' (with it's references to the crucifixion and Joan of Arc), and the quiet-loud mix on '3am'. Another fault of the album though is the rather weak vocals which all seem to be via a vocoder and this becomes rather tiresome towards the end particularly as the last few songs are very dull.