Black Sun
Sacred Eternal Eclipse
5.6
Black Sun comes to you from Glasgow, Scotland, and since roughly around 2003 the band has been on a mission to create some of the most disturbing and slimy sludge n’ doom-laden filth that owes most of its presentation to now defunct New York City drone/doom freaks, Khanate. The vocals are literally agonized screams in most cases and angered howls in others, almost as if the vocalist had at one time been captured and tortured by a group of underground militants for years on end, more than likely within an inch or two of his life, and this is his story about that experience. Seriously people, if you’ve heard the deepened agony brought forth from the vocal chords of the sinister and sadistic sounding Alan Dubin of the aforementioned Khanate, then you’ll surely hear the similarities delivered here.
Most of the songs are funeral paced, as if the band is literally trying to break through to the other side, and rarely, if ever, do they reach anywhere close to a mid-paced tempo. The guitar sound is quite muddled and too damn loud, and the riffs are really nothing to write home about. It’s basically pluck a chord, let the fucker ring out for five or ten seconds, and then pluck another one and repeat. I’m not even sure you could call these chord progressions, as they rarely form any sort of memorable pattern. Lots of feedback, lots of noise, and lots of pick scrapes and slides. While the rhythm section is about as elementary as it gets, the combo of bass guitar and drums adequately provides the essential foundation for what this sound is all about – heavy fucking riffs coupled with ugly, dissonant two note bends.
Where the listening experience doesn’t work for me is the fact that the music is completely marred by one of the poorest productions I’ve heard in quite some time. I’m sure this was partially intentional, because a clean sounding prod would really take away the ugliness from the listening experience anyway. It’s almost as if the band placed a boom box in the middle of the jam floor, pressed record and just started playing. The kick drum is too low in the mix, and the snare is too loud. All the bass does is thicken up the guitar sound a tad, so all is not lost in that department, I guess, but never once do you hear the bass go off on its own.
When all is said and done this is truly music to piss your parents off with, or I suppose you could even punish your kids with this shit. Unless you truly enjoy the sloooowwww dirges of the likes of Khanate, then I’m not sure there’s a whole lot to pursue here, as this stuff is far from listener friendly. I’ll admit that it’s a tad too disturbing for these ears, so it’s quite possible that this album is the success the band wanted it to be.
