SUNROT
SUNROT “The Unfailing Rope”
By Dr. Abner Mality
Not long ago, I reviewed an album by a band called WITCH RIPPER that was described as “angry sludge metal”. It sounded more like a BARONESS album and was anything but. SUNROT is much closer to the description than WITCH RIPPER could ever be. This is nasty, noisy and relentlessly grim sludge metal that follows in the true traditions of EYEHATEGOD.
No wonder this sounds like it was recorded in an insane asylum...singer Lex Santiago literally had a psychotic breakdown while recording it. Well, the entire planet now resembles an insane asylum and SUNROT is the soundtrack. Beginning with the agonizing noise collage of “Descent”, this lurches like a dying pachyderm into “Trepanation”, a term that describes brain surgery. This is pure EYEHATEGOD worship and SUNROT takes no pains to conceal it. It’s not like there’s a ton of bands working this style these days. “Gutter” starts with some crunchy riffs but surprisingly winds up being more atmospheric, complete with female vocals.
It’s a pretty well constructed album for its style. Shorter grooving piles of sludgy riffing surround the album’s mammoth track, “Tower of Silence”, which mixes atmosphere and sheer destruction pretty well. The vocals really do sound like someone getting electro-shock treatment. The album ends with another noise collage “Love”...it’s tough listening but fits the concept of “The Unfailing Rope” very well indeed. SUNROT is true sludge in grand, filthy tradition and a band that maybe can step up and fill a position in this style. Take as needed for pain…