Life In The Dark: The Sunya Is Rising

Sunyata Recordings are completely annihilating all label competition at the moment. I have no idea where they find the artists; I just hope they keep plumbing the abyssal underground for these gems. Pre-orders have just been put up for the ultra limited Life In The Dark EP; The Sunya Is Rising. Limited to 25 copies, a purple CDR enshrined in black card, all sealed and stamped in an envelope. A truly picturesque aesthetic for an honest, poignant release.

Piano and voice ebb and flow as a candid sense of melancholy and appropriation swamp the listener. You are greeted by sultry notes that glisten to the spoken word of Anne Sexton’s ‘The Fury Of Sunrises’. Within minutes the track has evolved and hazily breaks into the recognizable Nadja-fed drone. Piano strokes haunt and recur throughout the piece lending an overall feel that leaves me somewhat reminiscent of early Nortt material. There are even harsher moments tamed by underlying ambient fuzz that bring Heartache era Jesu to mind. The release integrates all the familiar aspects of shoegaze, drone, industrial and even funeral doom to create a pivotally compelling piece of music.

The composition is heavily drone oriented with a brilliantly calculated ear for refrain and release that has largely dissipated from Nadja releases as their back catalogue became ever more convoluted and uninteresting. 35 minutes of unabashed hazed up synthdrone teeming with melancholy and splendour. Drums hiss and crackle behind a field of reverb, samples pulse from the wreckage and shine side by side with piano as the only sensibly clear sounds. Vocals wail under the current of the track – left deep at the bottom of the mix. I implore you to check out an excerpt from The Sunya Is Rising on the Sunyata Recordings Sampler (here), and immediately pre-order before this ultra limited release ends up in the dark too.

Fellow LURKER Richard described this to me as ‘epic’, and few words really hold as true. For a two track, 35 minute drone metal EP to hold sway over you for the duration and not fall into the catacombs of blatant Nadja worship, there is a telling sense of artistic integrity that is not being celebrated enough. Pre-order or miss out.

You'll find me in the vast wilderness of British Columbia, talking metal at LURKER, or working in publishing and front-end web/eBook development.

9 Comments

  • Reply September 22, 2010

    Richard

    I love the vocals.

  • Reply September 23, 2010

    N.

    Incredible stuff. My copy is on it's way…

  • Reply September 23, 2010

    Alex

    Great news – cannot stress how much I am enjoying all of this labels releases.

  • Reply September 23, 2010

    Anonymous

    25 copies is stupid

  • Reply September 23, 2010

    Richard

    It's certainly not enough considering how good this release is.

  • Reply September 23, 2010

    sunyata

    Sunyata is a tiny label, putting out music from a bedroom.. 25 copies is all we could really afford to make of this right now! Hopefully in the future we can put out bigger runs of Life in the Dark music!

  • Reply September 25, 2010

    sunyata

    Ok friends, this CD is now sold out! Selling even just 25 copies in a few days was a much bigger reaction than I was expecting, thus why we only made 25 copies. I would love to press this onto vinyl sometime in the future.. labels, get in touch to help out! Thanks to Lurkers Path for this great review which i'm sure prompted many people to check this out!

  • Reply September 26, 2010

    Anonymous

    a cassette version would be cool…

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