After Dark, Of the Heavy Sun’s sophomore release, is a mosh-pitting, head-banging, do-some-drugs kind of awesome. Definitely more cynical sounding than the band’s first, self-titled album released in 2015, After Dark has a more metal sound that pulls you out of your everyday reality and into the discomfort of the dark. It’s rare I find a band with a sound I just can’t quite compare, but Of the Heavy Sun has a sound all its own.
The album is perfectly titled for the ominous, supernatural, dissonant sound that’ll remind you of a Halloween-esque mob of ghouls or witches having a seance party. Of the Heavy Sun consists solely of drummer Jake Ivester and bassist/vocalist Samuel Emerick, and yet the duo manages to produce a full sound that’ll have you head-banging in your living room along with the likes of Metallica.
Of the Heavy Sun incorporates several distinct elements into a psychedelic mish-mash of a metal rock sound: electronic components; clear, yet dissonant vocals; and even what sounds like an Eastern Asian wooden flute and gamelan in track seven, “Sudoku in the Bathtub.” At moments, they seem to bring in sounds from bands like The Who, Weezer, and Nirvana, and then, within seconds, shift to a sound more representative of groups like Rise Against, Disturbed, and Ghost. The group integrates so many drastically different sounds but creates a product that really gels together. It’s like if Charles Dickens wrote a disenchanted dystopian novel with a little nihilism and satanic ritualism thrown in, too.
Any album in which the first song proudly proclaims “we are just monkeys floating deep in space” already has me hooked, but to then actually compose an album that’s cohesive yet disparate demonstrates true intellectual musicianship. After Dark clashes and sways like only heavy metal rock can.
Unlike many modern albums, After Dark doesn’t just feel like random songs thrown together. It comes together as an album that makes you feel something: dissonance, disconnect from the world, and intrigue of the otherworldliness Of the Heavy Sun presents. The duo incorporates melodic trends throughout the separate songs that tie them together, but they also use the progression of the album to build up to a climax that hits at track four, “Space Legs” — an intensely uptempo groove — and then to ebb into a bridge-like break in track five, “Staring Into Nothing,” which is an unbelievably accurate title. I genuinely felt like I was staring at my ceiling, feeling the world flex around me. The album then continues in a more rhythmic extension of that psychedelic, alive feeling, slowly adding back in more complex elements, like dissonant vocals, bizarre instrumentation, and increased tension in tracks six, seven, and eight.
Unfortunately, though, “Ebb and Flow,” track eight and the finale to the album, doesn’t feel like a conclusion. It feels like a comma. The rest of the album overpowered the ending, so instead of ending on a strong note, it felt like Ivester and Emerick ran out of steam. Conversely, the track also doesn’t effectively fade out; it feels more like a hard stop, and that choice just doesn’t reflect the cohesion that makes the rest of this album such a strong piece of work. Had it ended with an instrumental fade or a loud, heavy piece, that could have really sealed it with a kiss…or, more accurately, with a punch. Instead of a smash-your-guitar-on-the-stage ending, it felt more like “okay, see ya later,” and after such a compelling, intense progression of music, it was a little disappointing.
Ultimately, though, After Dark is an impressive compilation of songs that exemplifies the ability of this duo to tie together many influences into their own identity. Ivester and Emerick are an impressive pair and do a good job of not blending into the general soundscape. They’ve created something that hints at what other psych-metal bands do, but in their own way.
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