Review: Sunless Dawn – Timeweaver

Style: progressive metal, melodic death metal (mostly harsh vocals)
Review by: Jonah
Recommended for fans of: Persefone, Between the Buried and Me, Opeth, good music
Country: Denmark
Release date: 16-11-2018

NOTE: This album was originally included in the November 2018 issue of The Progressive Subway

Hooooooooooly shit. This album leaves me speechless. I saw this album floating around a bit when it first came out, and kind of avoided it because a lot of “BTBAM-esque prog death” as it was described just doesn’t do it for me. That was an enormous mistake on my part, because this album is absolutely mind-blowing. The songwriting, the performances, the production, everything is just divine, and I can’t stop listening.

First and foremost, the guitars, man. The guitars are punchy and technical and just create this wave of power that shoves you through every song, until they need to slow down and fade out for the atmosphere at which point they provide a more gentle support for the rest of the sound. But every moment provides constant and surprising lead and riff work that I just can’t get out of my head. The bass tone is thick and present, leaving me bobbing my head to the rhythm, and the drumming is absolutely wild, flying between various beats and fills with ease, while never feeling too chaotic at the same time. I think the biggest point of contention many people with have with this album is the vocal performance, as it definitely sounds like a slightly beefier Thomas Giles. I’m not a fan of Tommy’s harshes generally speaking, I think they sound overly throaty and flat, but whatever Sunless Dawn’s vocalist is doing with his throat is working, because the extra punch in his tone blows Tommy’s out of the water.

One my first listen I was a little bothered by the length of the album, as an hour is a tad long for my taste and ending on a 15 minute track is risky. However, as I’ve gone back and re-listened over and over again I just can’t find anything on the album I would want cut, or trimmed, or edited in any way. The songwriting is just so damn tight that I find myself coming back over and over again, and as far as I’m concerned that means everything is just fine how it is, even if it’s a tad longer than I usually prefer.

I don’t like giving albums perfect scores. Even if I have nothing to specifically complain about, often I’ll assign a 9 to a band because they just haven’t done anything that I consider actual perfection from a musical standpoint, they’ve just impressed the hell out of me. Sunless Dawn though, deserves the perfect 10. Every single element of this music blows me away every time, the songwriting is sublime, and I absolutely cannot wait to see what they have in store for us in the future.

You’ve set the bar high boys, keep it coming.

Recommended tracks: Aether, Grand Inquisitor
You may also like: Hands of Despair, Demonic Ressurection (bandcamp), An Abstract Illusion (bandcamp)
Final verdict: 10/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page

Label: Independent

Sunless Dawn is:
– Henrik Munch (vocals, keyboards)
– Michael Moller (guitars)
– Thomas Mascagni (drums)
– Eskil Rask (bass)
– Christoffer Hildebrant (guitars)