Posted in Whathaveyou on June 2nd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Those of you who might be seeing this in Poland, good news in that Sunnata will be hitting up a few cities later this summer to support their Feb. 2021 release, Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth (review here). It’s shows more than a tour for the by-now veteran progressive/ritualistic heavy rockers, scheduled around festival shows at Egodrop and Soundrive, and of course they’re giving the caveat that like anything, they might not happen, but a return to playing at all is noteworthy at this point, so here’s me noting it.
Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth is, to say the very least of it, an album that deserves to be played live. I was fortunate enough to see Sunnata play in Oslo at Høstsabbat 2019 (review here) — which feels simultaneously like yesterday and forever ago; the photo with the live dates is from that show as well — and after years of following their studio work, they were a thrill to behold, no less immersive than they are on record and no less entranced by the music than their audience. While we’re doing understatement, they’re a band I’d be happy to watch again if the opportunity presented itself. Not this run, but you know, universe of infinite possibility and all that.
Their social media announcement went thusly:
IT LOOKS LIKE WE’RE GONNA PLAY A COUPLE OF LIVE SHOWS THIS SUMMER*. Mostly in major polish cities. Wanna hear “Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth” live? Then come & visit the following events:
16.07 Egodrop Festival 2021 30.07 Lato w Plenerze | SUNNATA / Plener P23, Katowice 31.07 Lato w Plenerze | SUNNATA / Rejs, Warszawa 10.08 Soundrive Festival 2021 12.08 Road To Soulstone Gathering: Sunnata + ARRM, Inverted Mind / 12 VIII / Kraków 21.08 Lato w Plenerze | SUNNATA / Dziedziniec Tama, Pozna?
We missed it a lot.
*) Hopefully.
SUNNATA ARE: Szymon Ewertowski – guitar, vocals Adrian Gadomski – guitar, vocals Michal Dobrzanski – bass guitar Robert Ruszczyk – drums, percussion
Posted in Reviews on March 16th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth is the fourth full-length from Warsaw-based post-heavy rockers Sunnata. Comprised of six songs, it runs a substantial-but-manageable 49 minutes and culls influences from a broad range of spheres, perhaps none more so than its own. The band began its journey circa 2008 under a different, less-prone-to-sonic-enlightenment moniker, and has gradually been engaging self-realization since, more effectively so each time out. Between their 2014 debut, Climbing the Colossus, 2016’s Zorya (review here), and 2018’s crucial Outlands (review here), they have marched a path forward of exciting sonic progression and individuality, finding a space where the crush of Neurosis, the melodic downerism of Alice in Chains and the tantric repetitions of Om can coexist in flowing, coherent form. Their material has never been so complex or so well composed as it is on Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth, and the songs come across as a multifaceted intellectual experience. It’s an album, to be sure, but it also feels in listening like the start of a conversation.
The stated purpose on the part of the band was to examine “different angles on the theme of religious fanaticism… [the] general sense of trusting your life to a crystal ethereal being represented by humans of flesh, bones and sins, and discusses consequences of doing so,” and fair enough. Their native Poland has, like many nations including my own, witnessed a swing to far-right populism and conservative demagoguery, and that’s before one actually takes the idea literally as a theme based on religious dogma. Any angle of approach, then, there’s plenty subject matter for Sunnata to work with, and in cuts like “A Million Lives,” “Black Serpent” and the closing “Way Out” — American listeners should be aware that this is the equivalent in British English to “exit” — they translate ideological depiction into deep-mix heavy immersion. They are writing about rituals and a ritual mindset, and the songs themselves feel ritualistic, from the beginning in “Crows” as the lyrics set listeners before a field of dead bodies, the first but not last reference to Rome falling made.
“Crows” is the shortest track on Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth at 5:57, and something of a stage-setting through its linear build, but effective in drawing the listener into the midst. Brooding voices and tense rhythms find guitarist/vocalists Szymon Ewertowski and Adrian Gadomski, bassist Michal Dobrzanski and drummer Robert Ruszczyk moving toward the solo-topped payoff that arrives in the second half of the song, a cascading turn that leads to a final chorus with both singers telling the audience something else it needs to know about the record that follows, which is that while Sunnata are working on a theme and the lyrics and mindset of the composition is geared toward that, they are not forsaking songcraft for the sake of narrative. I don’t know that this is the case, but I would not be surprised if the instrumental foundation of the record was set before the lyrics came together — each song has its own structure and is built toward the overarching flow, the assemblage front-to-back just happens to work exceptionally well enough to be tied together through the fanaticism theme.
As the shortest song, “Crows” is followed immediately by the longest, “God Emperor of Dune,” at 8:47, which is the basis of any Om comparison one might want to make, though here too the vocals distinguish Sunnata through call and response chants over soft toms, cymbals and tambourine, gradually moving toward a proggy rush and wash alike that swirls like the fog over a follower’s eyes. That is ably drawn back to a comparatively minimal and droning finish, but the patience and clear intent with which “God Emperor of Dune” is executed pushes the atmosphere laid out by the opener deeper, such that the push of the subsequent “A Million Lives” is like the constant barrage of living in a post-truth world. One never completely has footing in a world with no ground. The difference with Sunnata‘s portrayal, however, is that the songs themselves are structured and their movement tells this push-pull in shifts of tempo, rhythm and melody. For all the scope and purpose, again, they are songwriters. “A Million Lives” is catchy as all hell.
It would be the landmark hook of Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth were it not for the side B opener “Black Serpent,” with its more aggressive crux and gang-shout call and response chorus. In the back and forth pairings of shorter songs with longer ones, “A Million Lives” and “Black Serpent” are the centerpieces, but they do not give ground atmospherically, and the mood of the album is maintained, even if perhaps taken to a more severe place. “Black Serpent” seems to crash to its finish, a winding line of effects echoing out when the vocals recede, but “Völva (The Seeress)” — and while we’re here, let’s note that “serpent” and “völva” (which in Germanic mythology is a woman shaman) seem purposefully paired to subtly nod to male and female genitalia; sex is a big part of any dogma — arrives and sets itself to willfully repetitive invocations of its titular mystic, blurring the line that felt so stark only a few songs ago between “God Emperor of Dune” and “Crows” or “A Million Lives” on either side of it. Growing blurry is the intent, of course.
The title line of “Way Out” arrives as, yes, a way out of this fog, and it brings the album’s title line with it for further clarity, giving an encapsulation over its first two and a half minutes before dropping back to near-silence and rebuilding. This time, when it goes, it doesn’t come back. They end ethereal in vocals, but grounded in groove, and the feeling is very much that of an arrival from just before the five-minute mark when everything but the bass drops out to the rest of the song’s total 8:37. It’s closure, not epilogue, and duly exciting, underscoring the layered purposes to which Sunnata have set themselves on this fourth long-player. It is the work of a mature band — we’ve come a long way since Satellite Beaver — who refuse to stop growing, and whose refining of processes seems based not so much on retreading what they’ve done before, but deriving new modes of expression as they continue to explore who they are as a group. There are bands who base entire careers off less depth than any single track offers on Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth, and whatever else Sunnata do throughout, they make the entire project feel like the beginning of a conversation waiting to be had.
Sunnata, Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth (2021)
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 4th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
I’ve got a good feeling about this one, even aside from listening to the first single below. I was looking forward to catching Polish progressive doomers Sunnata for the second time earlier this year at Freak Valley Festival in Germany, but, well, a lot of people were looking forward to a lot of things this year. Like being alive. They’re booked for 2021 in Siegen, and maybe if circumstances allow, I’ll be lucky enough to go and catch the robed four-piece as they support what will be their new album, Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth.
Their fourth long-player provides and opportunity for Sunnata to affirm what 2018’s Outlands (review here) posited — that their progression will not be a staid thing, but an ongoing commitment undertaken by the band. How that will bear out in the songs — “Crows” aside, naturally — I’m not yet sure, as I haven’t had the pleasure of hearing it, but again, I’ve got a good feeling. I know early 2021 is packed with woulda-been-2020 offerings already, but keep an ear out here.
From the PR wire:
Polish shamanic doom band SUNNATA announce new album Burning In Heaven, Melting On Earth
Hypnotic first single ‘Crows’ is streaming now
Burning In Heaven, Melting On Earth to be released on 26th February
Feral wilderness prophets SUNNATA (sanskr. noun emptiness, voidness), a four-piece Warsaw-based shamanic doom metal band are set to release their fourth full-length album Burning In Heaven, Melting On Earth on 26th February. Ahead of this the band have also unveiled a visualiser for their hypnotic first single ‘Crows’.
SUNNATA comments: “The song tells the story of people giving their life for faith. Convinced they are fighting the blind, they are all equal when the death comes. Crows are observers aware of change – the only constant in the universe. Ravens and crows were frequently found on battlefields, feeding from corpses. That’s why crows in various mythologies are considered harbingers of doom. But they also bring the power of foresight to those who work with them. Diviners, seers and sages alike believed that the crow spirit could see through time and past the veils into spaces and places often hidden to humans. The crow as an animal spirit guide does not fear change. Does not fear the new.”
A ritualistic, meditatively uplifting, doom soundscape, Burning In Heaven, Melting On Earth is a sensuous, ever-mutating musical experience. SUNNATA produce a pulsating mystic dirge which shimmers with odd beauty and uplifting melodies. The result is an atmosphere of sacred submission immersed in huge dynamics for the duration of the album’s 46-minute expanse.
Thematically the album explores different angles of religious fanaticism. Burning in Heaven, Melting On Earth questions the sacrifice of individual-self and the general sense of trusting your life to a crystal ethereal being represented by humans of flesh, bones and sins, and discusses consequences of doing so.
SUNNATA comments: “The new album can be perceived as a journey of consciousness. We pass through our lives driven by blind faith and false leaders, keeping our goals outside the reach until we die convinced that the time has come, while in reality it is long gone. An individual who follows this path will never fully contribute to society and will never be able to share his love in a healthy way.”
SUNNATA have been paving their own way to higher metal skies since their 2014 debut Climbing The Colossus. Their spellbinding sophomore album Zorya (2016) made the band gather even more momentum with regard to the European alternative heavy scene. Third album Outlands (2018) brilliantly brought out even more ritual in the heavy, confidently crossing the frontier of progressive doom to land in even more melancholic and mind-expanding alleys.
Known from their expressive and atmospheric live performances, SUNNATA has already taken part in various international festivals and been invited to open for Mastodon, Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats, The Sword, Sleep, Kylesa, Ufomammut and Rotting Christ.
Returning in 2021 with Burning In Heaven, Melting On Earth, SUNNATA are at their most transcendent, melding together all the heaviness, intensity and tenderness into a graceful, cross pollinating form to create something incredible that demands attention and respect. From here SUNNATA are free to roam wherever.
SUNNATA will appear at Freak Valley Festival (Germany) and Grom Festival (Estonia) in 2021. More dates to follow.
Tracklisting 1: Crows 2: God Emperor of Dune 3: A Million Lives 4: Black Serpent 5: Völva (The Seeress) 6: Way Out
SUNNATA ARE: Szymon Ewertowski – guitar, vocals Adrian Gadomski – guitar, vocals Michal Dobrzanski – bass guitar Robert Ruszczyk – drums, percussion
