Sun of Nothing "...And Voices, Words, Faces, Complete the Dream" CD
[Blast Beat/Damaged]
These guys are from Greece, and they're quite unusual. The opening track on the disc, "Thank You", consists of 14 minutes of random experimental noise that's fairly harsh and chaotic. Then, after a noise intro, the second track kicks into some totally raw metal with insane vocal screams and a lot of tempo changes from slow and doomy with some moody clean guitars to faster and sort of along the lines of primal black metal meets Eyehategod or something. Then, with "Kick", the third track, the band slides even more towards the sludgy side of things with a lot of southern influenced rhythms and groovy tempos, thick distortion textures, and generally slower tempos. I find this direction to be much stronger than the weird sort of noisy-black-metal-meets-doom, so thankfully they stick with it for a little while. They always break up the tempos with some faster blasts mixed in with sick slow chord progressions (check out the amazing discordance in "The Misery Complex" or the eerie melodic notes in "Diablo"), but the vibe doesn't lean towards that unexpected black metal style all the time, so it's cool. The recording is definitely rough. I like the rawness in regards to their completely insane attack, notably the over the top and impossible to decipher vocals, but the guitars sound pretty filthy as well (in a good way). I think more of a bass presence would be nice, and the drums could be more consistently thick, but it's not bad for what it is. It needs a bit more balance to really benefit them, but I wouldn't shed that grating edge. The disc comes in a full color digipack with a foldout booklet secured inside the front panel. Something about the artwork and the print job seems a little off to me, I can't put my finger on it. I think my only gripe with the art is that it's too jumbled and busy, making some of the handwritten text hard to read, and the print job... it's just weird, it sort of looks like it was done on a really high quality home printer rather than a professional machine or something. It's not quite glossy, not quite matte... I don't know. I can live with it, but something about it looks a little rough. The lyrics are brief and deal with bleak and depressing themes, often repeatedly focusing on misery, suffering, death, etc. This is pretty unique material. I can't say I've ever heard anything that truly sounds like this, so the band is indeed pushing the boundaries (imagine Eyehategod, Godflesh, and classic Darkthrone tossed in a blender). I could easily do without the worthless noise track that starts the disc, as that really adds nothing to the record, but the caustic sense of melody in tracks like "Diablo" is incredibly promising, so with a bit more focus (mainly in the recording department) this band could go far. (6/10)
Running time - 59:17, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: Kick, The Misery Complex, Diablo]
Damaged Productions - http://www.damagedproductions.net

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