ALBUM REVIEW: Voyage – Grant The Sun
Norway’s GRANT THE SUN might be new on the block, but with the recent release of their debut LP Voyage, they are sure to turn heads with their profound blend of post-rock and progressive metal. It follows a run of EPs released since 2018 and incorporates a lot of the same ideas while clearly branching out into more diverse territory. We hear vocals incorporated for the first time, further allowing the Norwegians to be an accessible entry point into the genre for new fans, all the while feeling ambitious and full of character.
In some ways Voyage feels as though it could be a concept album. Recurring themes, voice samples and hooks combine to give the record a feeling of being well mapped, as opposed to just being a collection of interesting ideas shoehorned into an album format. It dances aptly between post-rock and prog with ease, navigating huge riffs and melancholic passages with an equal level of aptitude. Throughout an album just shy of 40 minutes in length we are acquainted with tracks like Blue Desert, which begins with lush dreamscapes before cascading into a torrent of chug and spiralling rhythm, flitting between styles almost innocuously.
Although they don’t appear as a central feature, vocals are often presented as raw, lashing screams that pierce the dense layers of music with a genuine angst seemingly born of an influence from sludge, but there is always a return to much warmer tones as the album swashbuckles its way along towards a conclusion. This is the case in Machina, where vocals almost double up as punctuation throughout a track laced with distorted guitar and layers of reverb so thick that it could have been recorded underwater. It’s dense music that struggles to breathe, which only heightens the feeling of doom.
In Vertigo the emphasis shifts between complex interweaving melodies to almost djent riffs that could be lifted from an album from a band like OUTRUN THE SUNLIGHT. Here is a band fully aware of their own abilities and who understand their trade well, creating a sound that draws on a plethora of influences while feeling unique and possesses their distinct fingerprint. It never feels overdone or cliché, rather it’s a well-rounded display of everything they love, for the most part very well executed.
As we reach Hits Like A Wave, the band start to lean into a more groove-oriented side to their sound and this is definitely an area in which they excel. Packed with rhythm and sludge in copious doses, Seadevil begins with classic metal riffs backed by wandering synth lines that pulsate and throb before finally the album is closed with the gigantic eponymous track Grant The Sun; five minutes of unadulterated djent-fuelled post-metal chaos. There are even echoes of thall here, before the track continues to conclude in a towering wall of sound that obliterates and pulverises before finally coming to a sudden reprieve.
It’s rare to see a band find a winning formula with album number one, but it would be hard to argue against GRANT THE SUN having done just that – they are sure to be the latest in a long procession of Norwegian prog bands to take the world by storm. There’s room for improvement, sure, but there is no doubt that this album will prick the ears of post-rock aficionados and newcomers alike. Consider Voyage as the bottom rung of a ladder that could take this band far.
Rating: 7/10
Voyage is out now via Mas-Kina Recordings.
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