There must be something in the water in South Wales, where musicians seem eager to look beyond the drip-feed rock scene. Magenta and Godsticks have formed their own niche based on volatile riffs and atmospherics, but Shadow Of The Sun are in the other corner.
They use their freedom of movement to follow heavier, more overwrought alleys, although ones of a more obvious camber. This isn’t a criticism. The kind of progression found on this, their debut album, sits beside the likes of A Perfect Circle. Songs are allowed to grow untethered by verse/chorus chains while still grasping onto anthemic hooks.
Nestled among Monument’s heavier fare, My Heart Is Wild And Overgrown is an acoustic wink to APC’s finest work, 3 Libras. This material, all road tested extensively since SOTS’s formation in 2011, feels organically grown, rather than developed by furrowed-browed musicians. The 10 tracks here comprise slavering riffs, tribal rhythm sections, dual vocals and huge melodies usually reserved for Corey Taylor’s hit conveyor-belt, Stone Sour.
The impassioned lyrics may be too nebulous for some, but others may find that Shadow Of The Sun eclipse many others in the field.
