Thursday, September 15, 2011

The Sun Through A Telescope - Orange (2011)



Scoping out the metal scene in Canada, there is a band that shines with its interesting sludge sounds mixed with progressive experimental tones. That band goes by the name of The Sun Through A Telescope. They have recently released some new material on an album called "Orange." The album carries only five tracks but after hearing them a couple of times you will see that five tracks is all they needed.

The first track, entitled "They Used To Worship The Svn," opens with bird noises creating sort of an outside image. Distortion slowly fades in from behind as it builds louder and louder until the violent guitar riffs come rumbling in. Quick snare and kick patterns rush in filling the air with violence. The tempo jumps a lot in this song as it goes from rapid speedy riffs to slow and deafening chugging riffs. The track runs for about 5 and a half minutes with no vocals at all. They do manage to add some interesting synth sounds towards the last minute.

Things get seriously heavy with "Glowing Hallowe'en Eyes." Wicked guitar riffs come blaring right off the bat. They add in an odd synth chord in between the guitars giving kind of an odd sound to the mix. Also a lot of the guitar patterns sound similar to songs off of the album "From Mars To Siruis" by the band Gojira. Once the the instruments start to fall together and vicious growl comes flying at you with dark demonic tones. Snares and cymbals are crashing all around you burying you deeper into the song. Very few growls are delivered as most of the song is instrumental. However when the growls do enter, they throw a monstrous chill down your spine and leave you in total shock.

The third track on the album is sort of a two parter as it's titled "I Am The Doorway (Part 1 - Ark'Bala Part 2 - Solar Propeller.)" This 8 minute masterpiece starts out slow with distorted guitars chug away. The drums enter heavily with slow kicks and snares that pound away at you constantly. There are some odd vocals throughout the song that aren't really screaming or growling but are more like just slow devilish sounds with no lyrics. It makes you feel like you are stepping into some sort of hellish haunted place as the voices echo all around you. The guitar however, do continue to chug slowly in the background.

You can hear rain falling in "Trees That Speak," as low ambient guitars play softly on top giving off a depressive sound. Although the instrumental is over four minutes long, it is really just a filler track on the album. As the instruments fade the final song "Autumn Tunnel" comes in with eerie spoken work giving a devil like image to the voice. Strange yelling vocals come out of no where about two minutes into the song as you will hear somewhat of a melody within the lyrics. The drums are booming as the snare is non stop behind the vocals. Some of the quality sounds a little distorted throughout the track. I'm sure if this was on purpose or just a bad mix. It definitely takes the cake when it comes to weird. This isn't a song that you would blast at a party or anything but it definitely has some amazing elements to it.

Overall, "Orange" is an enjoyable album from front to back and is complete with mind twisting song structures and haunting sounds. The Sun Through A Telescope manages to keep their songs similar yet diverse at the same time and definitely know how to keep their listeners hooked. Pick up the album and see for yourself!

8/10

Official Site - http://tstat.org/
Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/thesunthroughatelescope

No comments:

Post a Comment