Style: Technical Death Metal, Thrash Metal, Progressive Death Metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: At The Gates, Cannibal Corpse, Carcass, Ne Obliviscaris, Thank You Scientist
Country: New Jersey, United States
Release date: 10 January 2025
Horns sound in the distance.
The first rays of the early morning sun stream through the crenels of the battlements as your feet slide through the verdant grass, wet with dew. The winter air is crisp and cool as you approach, your breath forming wispy clouds that float to the heavens.
One horn calls out, much closer now.
You read “Dei gratia”—”by the grace of God”—emblazoned on the crest affixed to the imposing wall, above the portico of crimson and gold, and you thank God that you have arrived safely at this place. Suddenly, you feel as though you’re being watched. The outline of a dark, stout creature enters your peripheral vision. It slowly glides toward you.
“Ey! Get tha fuck out tha road!”
A middle-aged man with male-pattern baldness, wearing a mustard-stained tank top, gestures at you out the driver’s side window of his Honda CR-V. You awkwardly shuffle up onto the sidewalk.
“Fuckin jabron.” He spits and his tires squeal as he drives out of the Medieval Times parking lot.
Lyndhurst, New Jersey is where you find yourself on this winter morning, and it’s where Slaughtersun found themselves not too long ago, recording their debut EP Black Marrow.
Just as a replica 11th century castle in urban New Jersey may seem out of place, less than ten miles as the crow flies from the Empire State Building, an electric violin may not be the first instrument you associate with technical death metal. But in just 24 brutal minutes, Black Marrow shows that, dei gratia, Slaughtersun can use whatever instruments they want to shred your face off.
A side project of two of the members of progressive rock / jazz fusion group Thank You Scientist, as well as the vocalist of Cranial Damage and the drummer from Tombstoner, Slaughtersun play a progressive-leaning form of technical death metal, captured in this first collection of work, Black Marrow. This EP is composed of six tracks: a mood-setting introduction, a live recording at the end, and four full-length songs in the middle. These four core tracks are arranged chronologically, in the order in which they were released as singles. As Black Marrow progresses, and we move forward in time, nearly every element of the band’s sound matures and improves.
The vocals, for example, have some awkward moments on “Fall of the Firmament”, trying to shove too many syllables into certain phrases and at times poorly enunciating: “we must return to the dark” ends up sounding more like “we must return to the dork” (a scream, rather than a growl, might have helped make that wide vowel sound). As Black Marrow progresses, there are fewer (if any) of these slips, and the vocals also gain much more presence on the low end of the register, which is missing in earlier tracks.
The bass and violin really develop over these twenty minutes, as well: on “Fall of the Firmament”, the strings are mostly in lockstep with each other rhythmically as well as with the drums, save for an ascending bass riff, a fifteen-second violin solo, and the more freeform outro. But by the second track, more fills and longer phrases are already making their way onto the album. On the last track, “Black Marrow”, we can hear long, complex, walking basslines and prominent violin riffs that should be enough to entice any Thank You Scientist fan to check out this band.
The complexity of the arrangements is the aspect of this album which has most obviously improved from beginning to end. The first two tracks have a nearly identical verse-chorus arrangement, mainly in 4/4, with a downtempo bridge. By the second half of the album, odd time signatures (5/8, 6/8, 7/8, 10/8, and 12/8) and more complex song structures move this band from solidly “technical death metal” territory into “progressive death metal”. As that transition has happened chronologically, presumably we can expect more progressive work from this band in the future.
Finally, the drums are rock-solid throughout, impeccably scaffolding every song. The drummer never misses an opportunity for a fill, providing just the right amount of texture, perfectly balancing the skins and the cymbals. The double (triple?) bass pedalling on “Black Marrow” is surgical in its precision, but pummelling, like an avalanche triggered by a howitzer. Seriously impressive work.
Musicians often—but not always—show growth from one album to the next, exploring new lyrical ideas, new song structures, and new instrumentation. Much less often do you hear such growth within the runtime of a single EP. Slaughtersun have poured a foundation of solid thrash / death metal and begun to layer progressive rock sensibilities on top. If these four tracks are any indication of their trajectory, their first LP should be a seriously impressive work of progressive death metal. I’m eagerly anticipating it.
Recommended tracks: Black Marrow, Ready Cell Awaits
You may also like: Cranial Damage, Demilich, Gorguts
Final verdict: 7.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Frost Gauntlet Music Publishing – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Slaughtersun is:
– Justin Hillman (vocals)
– Ben Karas (violin)
– Cody McCorry (bass)
– Jason Quinones (drums)
