Album Review by Bradley Christensen
Sunlight’s Bane – The Blackest Volume: Like All The Earth Was Buried
Record Label: Innerstrength Records
Release Date: February 17 2017
If you thought the new Dying Fetus album, Wrong One To Fuck With, was an intense album, you haven’t listened to Sunlight’s Bane. This band is a deathgrind band that I’ve wanted to listen to for awhile now. They’re signed to the same label as metallic hardcore / hardcore band Bungler, who released a pretty good album earlier this year, but before that came out, Sunlight’s Bane released their debut LP, The Blackest Volume: Like All The Earth Was Buried. Since I’ve been catching up on some recent metal releases, this is an album that I thought I’d take a look at. I figured I’d grab it, especially since Innerstrength’s Bandcamp page only said there were a few copies of the album left, and since I liked the little clip that I listened to (you can stream things on Bandcamp for free, permitting the artist allows it, and I’ll do that for stuff that I’m not already familiar with, just to get a quick sample). I wasn’t sure how the entire album would hold up, but I’ve had the chance to listen to it a few times. After those few listens, well, this LP is a very frustrating one, but it’s not a bad album. I do enjoy this, but it’s not going to end up on my yearend list. This LP sounds a lot like Dying Fetus’ new album, Wrong One To Fuck With, but not within the music itself. They don’t sound alike. This band is much more intense, heavy, and raw deathgrind, whereas Dying Fetus is a tech-death band. Sunlight’s Bane is much, much heavier. That’s both a good and bad thing, too.
It’s not bad in the traditional sense, though, because the album’s sound isn’t bad at all. I love it. I’m a sucker for some good deathgrind. Just look at the latest Aborted and Abnormality albums. I loved those LPs from last year. They were two of my favorite metal albums, as well as two of my favorite albums period, but they were also somewhat short albums. If you remember my thoughts on Dying Fetus’ new album, I talked about how its length, plus its brutality, was a very big problem. That’s how I feel here, and it’s upped a bit, because this album is a lot more intense, brutal, and crazy. There’s a lot more happening here, and it’s done in such an insane way. The thing is, though, this LP is good. It’s god such a unique, well-done, and awesome sound, but I can’t really get into it as much as I want to, because it’s very, very long. Clocking in at around 53 minutes, with some songs being around eight, this album can drag a bit. It doesn’t drag in a bad way, because it’s not a boring album, it’s an exhausting one. This is one that I haven’t found myself coming back to a whole lot, because it’s just a lot to sit through. There’s a lot happening throughout the album, and it’s a tough listen, since it’s a brutal album.
Deathgrind is a genre that I don’t listen to much of, because of how intense and brutal it can be. Aborted and Abnormality are two bands that I fell head over heels for, because they had a relatively accessible sound to go along with that. This one, however, isn’t that familiar to me. I think it’s in the production, because the production is very raw, gritty, and almost reminiscent of a black metal band. It’s very lofi at points, and that is an issue I have with the album, because the album doesn’t sound that clean. I like what they were doing, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not for me. This type of production isn’t what I normally enjoy, but I still enjoy the album fine. There’s a lot to get into here, and everything sounds great, it’s not like anything in the album itself sounds bad. For a lot of albums, it’s outside forces that prevent me from really getting into it. With this and the new Dying Fetus album, it’s the length. Coupled with how long and brutal these albums are, they can get really exhausting, especially if you’re new to these bands. It’s not a bad record, though, even if it can get a bit long. I don’t know if I’d recommend this if you’re not into this kind of death metal, or grindcore, because it’s an intense listen. A damn good listen at that, but an intense one, nonetheless. I mean, if you want to listen to it, check it out, because you’re not going to lose anything, but it’s not the easiest listen, just for how much it happening and how heavy it really is.
