Transmissions (Deluxe Edition)

From the dramatic opening of “First Light,” which prepares Transmissions for takeoff with the claim that “we can change our fate,” it’s clear that Starset’s 2014 debut will be an otherworldly experience. Indeed, the band’s wildly ambitious, cinematic rock certainly gets spacey with neo-prog and classical string elements on tracks like the vast “Antigravity.” But they’re still human, and this is an album grounded in towering hard rock that’s layered in dense, buzzing synths on “My Demons” and giant, blistering guitar on the hook-laden “Carnivore.”