Sonrise

A great song can be found anywhere… said Axl Rose in reference to the punk tribute ‘The Spaguetti Incident? ‘. Well, these words can be applied to this album. Peter Dalbakk and Ole Borud are 2 christian guys who decided to put out one of the best metal records ever. Metal? Yes, after all, it has all the elements but it goes even further mixing a lot of influences perfectly and polishing them in a way that this is by far a musical pleasure to attend to.


They offer 8 tracks which can be described as doom metal with grunty vocals (very much ala Paramaecium) but far more polished and fancy combining classical musical elements, doom ala Theater of Tragedy, Amorphis, death vocals and cool riffing and excel sense of harmony. Among those 8 tracks we get 3 instrumentals that are a delight. Naturally, coming from Europe! I also agree with Brutalnet’s review here since the comparisons to Celestial Season are really well placed and about their points I couldn't be more in tune. So this is a Christian record that I have had since it was put out and what we get is a sense of melody throughout the record that can be hardly achieved by any band. Multi instrumentalist Ole Borud plays all in a very Arjen Lucassen fashion way. So when we get this kind of talent, rarely anything can go wrong.


The production is not perfect so the sound is somewhat under the barrel and it has not the standards of Dark Tranquility or Candlemass. For today’s standards it is still old fashioned. Anyhow it still enables us to enjoy this piece of art. The vocals go very much in the same vein of Amorphis’ ‘tales from The Thousand Lakes’ if you want an idea.


‘The Last Creed’ and ‘You Maintain’ are very doomy riffing. TLC has some double bass parts that are very interested for the slow pace of the song. YM is faster and again is a very good musical and the lyrics couldn’t be more Christian focused. ‘In Memorian’ is the first instrumental and it is entirely acoustic with a perfect melody. It is kind of a ‘Tyring-to-find-piece’ for the unborn children slaughtered in abortion every day. ‘A Father’s Mourning’ is the prodigal son tale from God’s point of view and this one resembles more to Solitude Aeturnus and it is the epic track, very tragic and poetic. It is very very slow, the vocals are spoken and clear. It ends faster but the sense of melody and tragedy is but outstanding. ‘A Whisper from Heaven’ is the second instrumental and again a delicious melody and now we get guitars, drums, bass but this one is obviously guitar driven and there is nothing I can say but exquisite. ‘On a Different Day’ follows and this one is again fast paced and the death vocals show up again. ‘Coming of the Dawn’ is the last instrumental and is piano driven but it has all the instruments and the melody is flawless, again, the comparisons to Thousand Lakes from Amorphis are evident. Such talent is really hard to find. ‘Sonrise’ ends and it is very gloomy although it has some mid tempo parts. The lyrics are very melancholic and so is the music which is a perfect way to close the album.


There is not much to say and I dare you to get this one a chance if you like this style of music performed in a flawless way by only 2 guys then you must listen to this. For those of you want further references GROMS is another band in the same style but more death metal focused. After this Ole Borud went to play full time with Extol so…’In Memorian’ to their only recording Schaliach deserves almost perfect score.