By Jonny Bakes
What do you do when your vocalist departs the band mid-way through recording your new album? Do you just abandon the whole project and start again after recruiting a new vocalist or do you get creative? Well Ecuador’s Black Sun opted for the latter and got their producer to recruit some of Finland’s finest metal vocalists to finish off their EP ‘Silent Enemy’ with some fantastic guest slots.
The list of artists involved in this is pretty impressive – members of Sonata Arctica, Lordi, Battle Beast, Omnium Gatherum, Wintersun and more… now if that doesn’t grab your attention then I don’t know what will! Certainly, for me, there’s some of my favourite bands in there so I’m quite happy with this but I suppose the concern is whether this array of strong talent will overshadow the musical talents of Black Sun? Let’s find out…
First of all, not being tied to the style of one particular singer has allowed the band to branch out more with their musical styles which makes this pretty interesting. The flip-side is that it also makes it a tad difficult to see this as a single release from a band instead of a compilation album. That being said, the overarching style is still classic heavy metal, so should appeal to a large proportion of the metal community. I’m certainly getting strong Judas Priest vibes from this, that’s for sure.
One of the leading singles ‘Still Alive’ boasts the bulk of the guest appearances and feels a bit like the Generation Game conveyor belt of metal titans. The combination of vocal talents of Noora Louhimo (Battle Beast), Jukka Pelkonen (Omnium Gatherum) and Lordi makes for a pretty unique, yet effective mix that creates a track that has the potential to be a big club hit. It’s got a catchy chorus with a simple chant and plenty of bounce to it that is likely to get a room bouncing. This track is clearly the focal point of the album too, as it’s immediately followed by an instrumental reprise to bring the EP to a close that causes ‘Still Alive’ to be embedded in your mind.
So, while this EP is something of a different beast to what Black Sun fans might be used to, the core sound remains distinctly classic heavy metal, and the host of guest stars adds plenty to attract attention. As a bonus, the EP also comes with a short Blu-Ray film based on the storyline of the album (possibly like a mini version of Nightwish’s ‘Imaginaerum’) which will bring more life to these tracks. ‘Silent Enemy’ marks a new beginning for Black Sun and while we may have no idea where this might take them, we can certainly say that they’ve made a strong start.
- ‘Silent Enemy’ is released tomorrow (Friday 4 September). You can get your copy HERE.
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