Album of the day: Apostle Of Solitude – Last Sunrise

Lovingly pinched from HellrideMusic.com: Those of you that are into real two-fisted Doom Metal, the ‘no beatin’ round the bush’, ‘misery and woe of this mortal coil’ variety, those whose Doom Metal proclivity is of the Godzilla-stomp-on-your-cerebrum genus, will most certainly find the godhead in Apostle of Solitude’s newest collection of recordings, Last Sunrise.

The expectations for AoS following 2008’s sublime Sincerest Misery were huge. I’d be hard pressed to name another release in recent memory as heavy, skilled and as tethered to real human emotional suffering as Sincerest Misery. So the question on most fans minds is, does Last Sunrise match the visceral power of it’s predecessor?

The answer is… no, not quite. Almost, but when you’ve recorded what is widely to be considered a totem of the Doom Metal genre, anything in comparison is bound to fall short as good as it may be. Such is the case with Last Sunrise… a very good album from the Indy fearsome foursome, but missing some of urgency and differentiation between songs that made Sincerest… such a wallop. And an agonizingly horrible choice (in my opinion, anyway) in an album cover. Fear not though, Last… is definitely no let down. The walls of Russian Studios in Bloomington, IN would tell you, if only they hadn’t been rendered speechless by the band.

There are some exceptional songs on Last…. ‘Letting Go Of The Wheel’ comes in with a whisper and leaves 9 minutes later with your head in it’s hands. Heavy as a mutha. The oddly titled ‘Hunter Sick Rapture’ is nearly 5 minutes of mid-to-uptempo bludgeoning, the Webb / McClellan rhythm section firing on 16 cylinders of Doom-fueled fury. The cymbal sound in the mix here is superb… sounds like hammers against an anvil, especially effective in the slower section. Amazing how that sound alone can give you an amazing sense of unadulterated gravitas.

Continue reading:  HellrideMusic.com – Apostle Of Solitude – Last Sunrise.

Tags: Apostle of Solitude, Chris Barnes, doom, doom metal, HellrideMusic.com, Last Sunrise, profound lore

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 12:41 pm and is filed under 2010, Album of the Day, Roadburn Recommended . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.