Sunnata – Chasing Shadows

Sunnata is in many ways a rather unique band. Musically, their doom cornerstone is inspired by the boggy grunge of 90’s Alice and Chains and the spellbinding depths of general Swans approach. And while on paper that formula might not sound groundbreaking, the result is most certainly unique and gives the band the identity that is undoubtfully their own. Also, the band’s approach to releasing records is somewhat unusual. Chasing Shadows, their fifth album, is just like the previous ones released by the band themselves. And taking into the consideration that they’ve been releasing albums for a decade now and their popularity has grown with each album, it does seem fairly unusual that they continue to release their music themselves. But that perhaps witnesses of the band’s dedication and prioritizing, because releasing music yourself does give them certain creative freedoms for fulfilling their creative vision.

And this is most certainly a band does pay attention to many aspects of their releases. Apart from their very distinctive musical direction, the band is deeply involved in all other aspects of their album, nonetheless when it comes to visual representation of the band’s work.

Six years ago, Sunnata released their pivotal record Outlands, which saw them embracing their roots, but also upping their conceptual approach, which resulted in the album being one of the strongest releases of 2018. Follow-up and their latest release Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth, came out during pandemic, and it saw the band continuing their progress within the established framework.

Another three years down the road and the band is ready with their fifth album, and it’s another release where the band demonstrations their uncanny sense for detail as well as the persistent overall overview.

Sonically, the band has expanded their sound some, so it comes across more bombastic and grander, while at the same time maintaining that essential rehearsal-space sound and feel. Drums and bass are most noticeably pushed more to the front, with especially bass serving as a more imperative part of the Chasing Shadows’ soundscape. Drums have more of a modern sounding quality to them, but never so much that they stick out from the overall sound or have a hard time gelling will the rest of the instrumentation.

Musically, the band takes their unique brand of alternative doom and grunge inspired music a step further on Chasing Shadows. The growth with each next Sunnata release is unavoidable, despite the band not changing their approach drastically. The progress this time around is mostly noticeable in the overall approach and the flow of the album. You can pick any song you want and enjoy it out of the context of the album, but to get most out of them its recommended giving the entire album a spin or ten. The aforementioned flow is near flawless despite the diversity of the material, and it’s clear that the Poles have used lots of time working on that. Cleverly placed interludes add to it as well.

Another key element of this band’s sound are those layered arrangements, which give the music its identity and general feel. The fact that songs work very well individually witnesses of the gist of songwriting, but it’s the complex and detail-oriented arrangements that lift Chasing Shadows and Sunnata’s music to a whole another level and give it its unique qualities. These qualities, however, do crave time and involvement from the listener, because they often surface upon repeated listening.

Taking all that into the consideration it feels pointless to emphasize specific songs, yet at the same time it’s worth mentioning that with “Torn”, “The Tide” and “Sleeper”, the band has created songs that stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the peaks from their career.

This rather vibrant era in Polish metal scene has introduced the rest of the world to so many interesting artists, and Sunnata is most certainly one of the most fascinating ones among them. Following the band’s evolvement over the years is not only interesting, but also enlightening. Invest yourself in this band and the reward will be almost overwhelming.

sunnataofficial.bandcamp.com