Sun Worship : " Pale Dawn"

They start off blasting, but it is recorded with what sounds like dual vocals layered with one the more typical screaming and another a cleaner chant to give an almost Tombs like effect. They drone on the one riff in manner recalling the golden days of Darkthrone. I haven't gotten a ton of that lately so I'm not as burned out on it as I once was. The recording it very raw and cavernous.The second song "Lichtenberg Figures" finds itself hovering over a similar riff. As I let this play and began to work on something else it began to face into the background as a humming blur of distortion. When I went back to listen again I keyed in on a thrashy chorus section that has a more feral punch to it. The drummer is not doubt a beast, and these guys go for the throat all the way. There is no questioning their dedication to what they do. What they do just happens to resemble what many other bands of this ilk do with few colors to set it apart from the rest of the black herd.


 I looked up to realize I was on the 3rd song instead of the second, though this could happen with any number of bands who get locked into the blasty mc nasties and have a hard time pulling away.  I remember hearing their previous album "Elder Giants" that was released in 2014, and hell, I could have even reviewed it , but it must have not left that much of an impression on me as I am unsure how much distinction could be made between the two. "Nalad" finds the less screamed and more dry coughed vocal playing a more dominant role. The drums become a little less interesting on this one as well. Full blast ahead is clearly the only direction this album is going by the time we get to the fourth and final song. Once again a more metallic aggression snarls forward where a chorus would be if these songs were to follow something sounding like a normal song structure. Actual sung vocals surface midway through and help break things up.These guys are solid for the brand of black metal they adhere to I'll give this one a 7.5, if you need some late 90s sounding second wave with just enough variation to remind you what year it is then this German band might be what you need.

 

Catching up with 2014 : Sun Worship's"Elder Giants"

Here's a German band that sounds like it's from New York's cascadian hipster black metal scene. So with that said , it means they are pretty sonic and of course released this album on a limited vinyl pressing of only 300 copies , which are all sold out so the only way for you to get this record is for them to give it you on the Bandcamp page. The first seven minutes of "We Sleep" blows by you in a hypnotic blur. The slow it down before the 8 minute mark and slap you in the face with a half time groove, harder than your granny trying to tell you how epic a centaur is . It's less of a D&D gallop and more of a pack up your bong groove. The song hits you sop hard til you assume it is good, a common trap many heavy bands hit you with, but around here that means the joke is on them because they now have to convince me they can do even better than that, if they want to be regarded as being worth half a shit up in the piece.

Not sure whats up with the ebonics, I should write in more of an Aryan fashion considering where these guys are from, and the bulk of our hardcore readers are from Germany. "The Absolute is Becoming" stirs up a similar cauldron of blast beats.  It really is like running down hill. Their feet fly out from under them, but rather than being like Charlie Brown they soar off into the distance becoming background music. The riff to the title track is more defined. The notes sing out rather than disappearing in a wall of sound. The vocal rasp was easier to make out on the first song, but after that it is more a static coat of human noise. At the halfway point of this ten minute monster it slows down into a doomy lurch. They come back in an launch back off into the sonic sky, where they fly away back into the blast beat drone.

They hit a weird mix of noise and melodic moments when they close out the album. The synth sounds if thats what they are and not the feedback of of over effected guitar, creates a Tangerine Dream or Pink Floyd like feeling. While they are cool sounds, it's more of an outro than real song. I like where they are going with the three songs they do give you here that clock in at a combined 30 minutes , which is longer than Reign In Blood. While it's not  like you have never heard anything like this before, if you are fan of black metal, these guys are good at what they do. I'll give it an 8, even though I doubt it will last long on my iPod, it sounds like the best is yet to come from these guys.

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