Western Pennsylvania outfit Under the Sun have about as formidable a résumé as any doom rock band from the eastern half of the US could hope for. Between the three players involved, there are members of Dream Death, Penance, Revelation, Pentagram, Place of Skulls, Cathedral and Internal Void – and most of that just applies to drummer Mike Smail. Guitarist/bassist Dave Roman is also Penance alumni, and vocalist Dennis Cornelius did time in Place of Skulls and is perhaps best known as the former singer of Revelation, but Smail’s pedigree accounts for the rest, giving him a host of influential acts in which he’s been involved. Imagine being able to say you were in Dream Death, Cathedral (before they recorded Forest of Equilibrium) and Pentagram. Not what you’d call a lightweight, and as the impresario behind the release of Under the Sun’s debut full-length, Man of Sorrow, through his Smail’s Custom Drum Shop imprint, his role in the band takes on even more heft.

In case you were wondering, there actually is a Smail’s Custom Drum Shop, about 45 minutes outside of Pittsburgh in a town called Kittanning, where Smail offers lessons and sells – as you might guess – drums and other equipment, but in Under the Sun, the focus is on traditional American-style riff-led doom. Cuts like “Joy” and “Forgiveness” offer the kind of Christian-based lyrics that fans of Place of Skulls have come to expect from a certain segment of East Coast doomers, but where Man of Sorrow really hits its stride in the heavier, riffier songs like “To Sleep with Anger” or the more brightly toned “Divinity,” which injects a faster-paced Goatsnake feel into its Pentagram-style shuffle, Cornelius’ cadence and phrasing only helping the comparison, at least until the section of whispers about three minutes in. On the nine-minute opener, “Stride,” he comes on strong with a kind of overdrive effect on his vocals that I’m glad isn’t a permanent fixture. With the lighter hues coming from Roman’s guitar, interplay of acoustics and electrics, and underlying (maybe underrepresented for doom, but nonetheless appropriately balanced for the mixture Under the Sun have going on) bass, it can be a bit much, but like I say, it doesn’t last, and the layered guitar solos – in the Iommi tradition – more than stand up in making a case for the success of the song as a whole.

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