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Across The Sun

ACROSS THE SUN - BEFORE THE NIGHT TAKES US (3)
METAL BLADE RECORDS

The base ingredient for this debut record is metal. You know, riffs, double kick drum, a sweet-and-sour mix of adequate growls and hideously angelic singing.

Across The Sun's distinguishing feature is their taste for the dramatic. The crooned, clean vocals warble on about hearts and salvation or something, over both chug-a-lug riffs and "meaningful" reverberous chasms. The guitar frequently peals off into a Hollywood, "riding the horse into the sunset, injured but triumphant" kind of guitar solo. Songs often feature violin or piano, because they are grown-up instruments that are classy and stuff.

The most interesting parts are the keyboard tones, which have a decidedly video-game-like feel to them. Not the 8-bit Mario bleeps that HORSE the Band have fun with, but the slightly evolved sounds from the Playstation era. This makes the whole affair come off like The Black Mages - a band who perform hilarious metal versions of songs from the Final Fantasy series. Of course, that band is quite obviously not taking itself seriously, whereas Across The Sun are embarassingly earnest. Laughing *with* an album is fine, but laughing *at* it just makes you feel mean.

Reviewed by Nick Oakden
BEFORE THE NIGHT TAKES US is out now on Metal Blade Records

You’ll like this if… the storylines in Games Workshop novels move you to tears.

 

Across The Sun