Carlisle rockers The Sun Explodes are releasing their second studio album ‘We Build Mountains’. Some of the hits off this record will simply blow your mind; it’s such a creative diverse and explosive rock album. The band has cleverly combined a mixture of different musical elements, vocal styles and paces.
The only slight snag is it only consists of eight tracks, so only gives you a taste of the band’s talent. A couple of the songs such as ‘Lamia’ and ‘Fear Of Falling’ are questionable, personally I wouldn’t even count these as tracks, more like interludes. ‘Lamia’ is only 50 seconds long; however ‘Fear Of Falling’ is just over 2 minutes. ‘We Build Mountains’ is filled with absolutely fantastic tracks, but The Sun Explodes have failed to keep the bar high on others.
The favourite track is ‘A Thousand Fires’ which begins with deep bass and follows with a beautifully mellow ambience sweetened with soft soothing vocals. This builds up into a spectacular hard-core rock smash-hit with death metal growls and screams, and a cracking instrumental. It’s obviously clear these guys are powerful, talented and rather creative. The Sun Explodes have used a variety of different elements, such as 80’s metal vocals, death metal growls, electrifying riffs, heavy bass, diverse melodies, and powerful drums. A cracking track which really shows these guys mean business.
The other top tunes are ‘SevenThreeOne’, the title track ‘We Build Mountains’ and ‘Serpentine’, which follow in the vicious death metal style with more ferocious screaming, 80’s metal vocals, superb guitar riffs and wonderful melodies. ‘SevenThreeOne’ is certainly one to give a listen, for the fantastic powerful vocals with a mix of hardcore growls and sing-along moments. The track is wickedly captivating, and cleverly infuses fast-paced pounding heavy metal breakdowns with soft melodious slow-paced moments.
‘Machines Pt.1’ and ‘Machines Pt.2’ provide diversity to the album. Both manage to tantalise your emotions and are full of real passion. ‘Machines Pt.1’ is a sweet slow-paced melodic track, with dreamy musical elements that create an enchanting ambience. With soft high vocals added to the poetic track that makes it really profound and dramatic. However, going back to my only criticism of the album, again this track is merely 1 minute and 16 seconds long. I just can’t seem to grasp The Sun Explodes decision to make some of the songs so short, for me it hinders it slightly. ‘Machines Pt.2’ is a cracker of a hit, with electrifying guitar riffs, a heavy rock beat and more of those brutal hard-hitting growls. The instrumental work is outstanding, with a wonderful melody that switches between vicious rock to a slow-paced mellow sound.
The Sun Explodes are certainly a unique rock band with something special. I just wish the album included more tunes in the style of ‘A Thousand Fires’, ‘SevenThreeOne’ and ‘We Build Mountains’, and get-rid of the pointless one minute interlude tracks, which would of seen them reach those 5 stars. However, unlike other groups they have managed to cleverly infuse a variety of musical elements to create wickedly powerful smash-hits. If you wish to hear a band that are full of creativity, innovation and bring something new to the table- these rockers are for you!
4/5
‘We Build Mountains’ by The Sun Explodes is released 22nd July.
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Words by Chantelle Kelly (@ChantelleKelly3)
