Right from the jump, let's make
sure we're doing this right. This band is called Ten Suns. The “X” is
the Roman numeral for 10. You probably sat there in math class when you had the
unit on Roman numerals and thought, “When am I ever going to use this?”. Well,
smart guy, right now, that's when. And while we're at it, you use algebra a lot
more than you think too, so let's stop with all those social media memes about
that. In fact, let's give our math teachers a break and recognize that they
taught us lots of useful and important things.
Now that I've gotten that off my
chest, it's time to talk about this bitchin' release from X Suns. I have
to give a shout out to Devil's Child Records, the label on which this is
released on vinyl. They have put this out on traditional black vinyl, as well as
3 different splatter variants. They look really good and match up with the
artwork on the album jacket very nicely. One variant is available only through
the band, so check them out. Just on looks alone they are worthy of being the
next addition to your collection.
We are about the music, though,
and there is some very nice stuff here. This release actually collects two
EP's, “III” and “The Greys”, and splits them, one on each side of the vinyl.
These guys are an instrumental band, by which I mean that there is no singing.
I always tip my cap to bands like this because I can never wrap my mind around
writing music that doesn't have lyrics to go along with it. Thankfully, these
fellas don't have any issues with that. The songs all have nice structure and
the songs move along and feel like they are telling you something. Kudos also
to the band for coming up with song titles that feel like they really fit the
music in each track.
The “III” side opens with one of
my favorite tracks on this release, “You've Been Asleep”. The song moves and
feels like someone waking up, at least how I feel when I'm waking up, and then
has a pretty raging ending, which I imagine is the person getting to the point
where they are awake but there's no coffee ready to finish the process. There
are 4 songs in total on this side of the record. They are all good, solid
songs. As a metal fan I had my own ideas about what a song called “Skull
Breach” would sound like, but there's no death metal here, and this version of
a skull breach works for me too.
“The Greys” has 3 songs, and
they are the earlier of these two releases. It is interesting to listen to
these 2 EPs back to back, because you can clearly hear how the band is progressing.
The songs are a little edgier to me on this side. I wouldn't call anything
these guys do “rough”, as they actually have a very polished sound that holds
up well to repeated listening, but these songs just seem to bite a little more.
“To The Bottom of the Sea (The Greys)” moves very smoothly from a quieter intro
through some tempos and time changes and slowly builds up to quite a powerful
feeling ending.
I really enjoy this release. It
feels quiet and contemplative at times and also has some heavy moments. As
instrumental releases go, this is one of the better ones I've heard in a while.
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