EP REVIEW: Passages – Sunrot
Following a stream of success and live shows, SUNROT return after a year with an emotionally charged and visceral distressing EP, Passages. An accompaniment to their seismically raw second album, The Unfailing Rope, that announced the band’s thunder, the five tracks were written and recorded at the same time. While still echoing the themes of trauma and darkness through their bleak blend of sludge and noise, Passages offers a glimpse of hope under the apocalyptic heaviness.
Closing this chapter for the band with a final blow, Passages commences with haunting, forbidding droning, before launching into the first full track, The First Wound. Featuring FULL OF HELL’s Dylan Walker, the song absolutely crashes down into five full minutes of brute-force sludge mixed with sharp noise akin to an electric drill being forced into your skull. Vocalist Lex’s painful shrieks mimic the psychological distress in the lyrics that grapple with how our youngest traumas persist within our brains. While jarring, it’s emotively poetic and impossible to only listen to once.
Conversely, Untethered, adopts a gentler start. With the repetition of lyrics “Turning towards, leaning in, going through, letting go” and inclusion of strings, the track feels uplifting even amongst the morbid riffs. A welcomed addition following the uncomfortable fever dream in the previous noise track, Sleep. The final cut, RA, features the words of experimental musician, Sun Ra, discussing the power of music, continuing the underpinnings of liberation and drawing the record and this story to an optimistic close.
Amongst the cathartic gloom and grim noise interludes, SUNROT have achieved what they set out and there is a real case for connection with the lyrics and themes on both The Unfailing Rope and this EP. Passages doesn’t offer any gimmicks, it isn’t rammed full of catchy riffs and sing-along choruses, instead its ferocity and prowess comes from the injection of themselves. As one immense chapter ends, another is sure to follow.
Rating: 7/10
Passages is out now via Prosthetic Records.
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