Sun Voyager Welcome New Guitarist/Vocalist Christian Lopez
If you’ve been paying attention to Sun Voyager‘s steady flux of social media whatnot around the recent release of their self-titled album (review here) through Ripple Music, you’ve probably seen them mention in passing that they’ve been working with “local shredder” Christian Lopez (seen below at their Halloween gig) for shows over the last couple months. Savvy as they are, it seems likely this was intended to focus the conversation not on what is actually a pretty significant shift in their lineup, replacing now-former frontman Carlos Francisco, with someone who hasn’t, you know, been in the band for the past decade with bassist/sometimes-vocalist Stefan Mersch and drummer Kyle Beach, but on the release of their finest work to-date, even if the personnel shift means it’s also the end of an era for them and whatever they do next will invariably be affected by the change.
It should be noted that’s not necessarily a bad thing, and given their work up to this point in the studio and on stage, I have no trouble trusting Sun Voyager on picking a new guitarist and singer. They’re not a band who does things haphazardly — see also: their waiting to get distance from the album release before making this change official — and if the end result here is they can do more shows, explore different approaches and styles and ultimately come out of it a stronger group, well, that’s the whole idea, I guess.
I’m not going to take away from what the band accomplished with Francisco at all, and neither should anyone else. I don’t know the full situation here, but sometimes these things happen and all you can do is wish everyone the best going forward. Sun Voyager might want to film a live video or something like that in the next month or so, just to let their audience have some idea of where they’re at as a unit when it comes to live performances (at least I know I’m curious), but there’s time for these things yet.
For now, here’s them marking the occasion:
Sun Voyager welcomes bona fide shredlord Christian Lopez into its ranks. He’s been ripping with us for a couple months, nailing the sound, and has our infinite gratitude for embarking on this voyage. He does great work with guitars as @calivibescustom too. Help us give him a warm welcome.
11/12 • Troy, NY • No Fun
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