Second To Sun surprise again with their efficiency and it seems that the band decided to break all productivity records: six month ago The Black was released and here comes their new longplay The Walk.
If The Black can be called, with a stretch and with some assumptions, “Blackbound version with vocals” (though many instruments were re-recorded and updated), The Walk contains nine new songs, each one with its own history behind.
The epigraph to the album is “…men shall not live without rumor of old strange secrets, and wonders that planets tell planets alone in the night” from “The Strange High House in the Mist” by H. P. Lovecraft. Those are bloody right words, but I need to add that all these secrets and legends are extremely dark when they told by Second To Sun.
An albums opens with “We Are Not Alone” that tells about violent christianization of Russia. Evil squeaky riff, Theodor Borovski’s drums and Ultar‘s Gleb Sysoev screaming develop to a very gloomy picture. “Убивай, окунай в прорубь прямо головой. Не печалься, если кто обретёт в ней покой” (“Kill, dip his head in ice hole. Don’t grieve if someone will die in it”), looks like some legends about Spanish Inquisition, but no! Eastern Orthodox “God men” also brought their word with fire and swords.
“Black Lines” with some Groove Metal elements is stunning. The melody in chorus and powerful vigorous drums. The melody in chorus and powerful vigorous drums just demolishing. Some Groove elements are also sound quite impressive in “To Live” with some mesmerizing keyboards and insane “New World Order” with lots of blast beats and unexpected sample from an old TV show.
No doubt that there must be some extensive soundscapes in every Second To Sun album. Here, in The Walk the most impressive is probably “The Owls”. All the power and ire of guitars, drums and vocals (Gleb’s 16 second scream worth a lot) elevates by high keyboards and the song draws the listener into a night forest where the shining of sparse stars through the trees’ crowns don’t help to get out, but only enhance the feelings of loneliness and lost.
An album ends with simple, monotonic and very deep “We Are Alone”. This track easily kills any hope.
In the end I wanted to write something like “the album exceeded all my expectations”, but I didn’t expect anything from the band this year. So, for me The Walk is some kind of will-o’-the-wisp. It frightens but fascinates and tantalizes. On your way to it you bog down in your fears and emotions. But the will-o’-the-wisp is gone and you still bogging down deeper and deeper.
The Walk will be released on November, 25
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