The majority of all music is born in seclusion, either through mental or geographical isolation. Today’s band bears from both perspectives, coming from the land of unique oddities and performing music that could also be characterised in similar vein. Both flourishing in absurd and raw heaviness while clasping hands with tender and ruefully emotional tranquility, the said sides blend into one enjoyable aesthetic which I intend to elucidate and clarify to all of you with the means of the following long-ass feature.
SUNDR is a four-piece doomy post-metal/sludge band hailing from Melbourne, Australia. Having released an EP, a full-length, and a split during the five years the band’s been active, they’ve slowly but surely built name for themselves. And because of being as fascinating of an act as they are, I wanted to steer the spotlight to their direction when I got the chance. Even though the genre stamp laid upon them is very mundane, if you vibe with those titles even a slight bit, I urge you to give this band a listen immediately.
While they operate within familiar bounds, the outcome is something singular and rarely obtained. This proved to be true right from their first release, 2015’s Loss, and has remained that way since. So the attention is more than deserved, and I was timely enough to have a bit of a chat with the group’s vocalist Scott, who swept wide open the curtains of the band’s history, and detailed matters I felt would be interesting for myself, for any fan, as well as for someone occasionally stumbling upon this article by a chance.
‘Around late 2014, early 2015, the first SUNDR songs were in their embryonic stages. We had all come from playing in hardcore bands which, for various reasons, had come to their respective ends. When SUNDR was formed there was an exciting energy in the air, we had three or four song ideas which were relentlessly re-written and sculpted until they became our first two-song EP Loss, all in a relatively short amount of time. There didn’t seem to be any specific goal or reference driving the band, we found catharsis in the music we were writing and I think it brought out the best in all of us individually.’
The mentioned energy is very much prevalent throughout Loss, and the members’ hardcore past came through quite audibly as well. “Maraud”, the first of the two, opens calmly until picking up speed with brute force and sensible agony. The track carries on with highly distinct passages, acting as the grand opening piece for the band’s career, and succeeding in doing just that. While the first one bounces all over the place, the second track “Enmity” brings the band’s second side into attention by means of slowly growing ambiance, crescendos, and more coherent overall feel, that hits the listener in the head like a ten-ton brick. Both tracks seem to be from opposite sides of the spectrum, which is quite pleasing from the listener point of view, as well as a wise move in the bigger picture.
Few years passed until their debut full-length The Canvas Sea was released, and right from the first notes, it was obvious that the band didn’t waste those years in any extent, but spent them growing and meticulously working on their own essence.
‘We continued obsessively writing and refining from the first EP, the songs organically became slower, longer, more visceral, and eventually took the form of The Canvas Sea album. Since we first began writing we reached out to French visual artist Camille Blanchemain, who created an aesthetic for the band, based on the lyrics alone. SUNDR seemed to take on its own identity quite quickly and organically, and we were fortunate to start playing live during a sort of ‘boom’ in the Melbourne heavy scene. We seemed to find our place among anything from post-metal, black metal, hardcore, doom, industrial, noise… Navigating such a broad landscape inspired us to work hard and really present the best version of ourselves that we possibly could.’
The years the band spent mixing their concoction of post-metal and doomy sludge, while slowly getting rid of their more hardcore-oriented past, were reclaimed in a blink of an eye when their debut album The Canvas Sea was released in 2017. The carefully crafted, unforgiving atmosphere floors you right from the start and keeps you pinned down for as long as necessary. The seeds of light are strewn very infrequently, as the main weight of the album is to be exactly that; an immensely heavy, punishing, and hopeless experience.
The details are a key element to SUNDR‘s output, and throughout The Canvas Sea, they’re also plenty. The dynamics on the album feel like a conversation between the highest soaring mountains and the most serene, deepest depths of our oceans. Mostly dwelling somewhere in between, the aural trek is able to produce visual associations, highly dependent on the listener’s state of mind. The apexes as well as the lowest points however will hit each listener pretty much the same way – right into the damn feels.
‘Every release seems to have an identity of its own from its inception, so the composition process has been slightly different each time. Nothing has changed drastically, but over time we have been able to cultivate an awareness of this certain feeling or identity that emerges through the music. We are all very close and understand each other’s roles in the band, so writing is much more of a shared conscious experience, it usually involves stripping away many layers and understanding that a song needs to tell the most honest and engaging story it can. Taking this approach with every release has been a great self-learning tool, we are inspired by all kinds of music which we can explore through our writing, but the driving influence is the therapy that comes from writing and releasing this kind of personal music.’
The Canvas Sea opens up like the very serpent depicted on the upper half of the artwork; coiling and hissing, entwining to a cross while being pursued by men in total anguish. You can actually interpret the amazing artwork in multiple ways, depending on your point of view. Are these men reaching out to the snake? Are they rearing said cross while a native woman watches closely as the men are conquering a land that isn’t theirs? Are the men desperately clinging to faith – clinging to God- as their last resort to survive whatever plague is being laid upon them?
The somewhat religious imagery isn’t too far-fetched, as biblical references are to be found here and there in the lyrics. These references, sometimes familiar phrases, provide depth to the overall aesthetic without wandering to a sermon-like territory. That said, the album’s narration is quite thoughtful and layered, though it’ll most likely seem very abstruse at first. Yet, after a certain amount of revisions, depending on your reading level and internalization skills, things start to unfold and make sense in a rather enlightening way. As Scott later on elaborates, being clear and obvious isn’t something they’d attempt to be in the first place.
‘I always understand my lyrics more, once I have moved past them and can take a retrospective look at them from a distance. At the time, I am just writing in the moment, usually searching for the root cause of the emotions I’m feeling. I have learned to write more honestly with every release. When I look back at the lyrics from Loss, I see straight-up nihilism. They are very broad, speaking to a dramatized version of the world I was observing around me, spiteful and hopeless. The Canvas Sea continues this narrative in a much deeper, more profound way. I find The Canvas Sea´s lyrics to be very visual, I could immerse myself in that world and I think that was the catalyst I needed to write more honestly and confidently, putting my personal experiences, emotions, and neuroses into my lyrics while still being able to hide behind metaphors and stories.’
So the lyrical aesthetic surpasses the boundaries of not only individual songs, but release dependent frames as well. Even though the stories are separate, there’s certain connection points bringing the tracks on Loss and The Canvas Sea together. There’s no reason for a lyricist to try to shake off their own imprint, but it’s the avoidance of monotony that makes the written word particularly interesting.
‘The lyrics and music are written together, when there is a simple idea for a guitar part, it will bring out a few lines of lyrics from me, and it all grows together from there. We recently recorded a new album, this time my bandmates were really involved in the lyric writing too, we found parallels in our personal stories so I was really able to write with them in mind. It has given a whole new energy to these songs, I’m eager to share them with the world. I don’t think it’s important for listeners/readers to fully understand what I’m speaking to at any given time, I don’t want my lyrics to be a cry for help or attention, I want them to come from a deeply personal place, a place I believe is inherently human. People may have their own stories that parallel mine, certain words may bring up different images, it’s all valid.’
The standalone compositions on the album are also more varied and complex than on the EP, which can be signed off as natural growth and constantly refining workflow. Take “I Still See Plagues” or “Corinthians” for example; both represent the band on their most fluent state, as the tracks float effortlessly, drifting from one extreme to another, evolving continuously to an unpredictable direction. The album is well-balanced, starting with “A Carrion Vultures” that’s an instant dive to the callous murk that dominates the atmosphere, introducing the previously mentioned dynamics very distinctly. Apart from this and the other, colossal and branching tracks, we have a short interlude and an outro piece that further underline the album’s narrative nature.
‘Songwriting has naturally developed and become more natural over time, I guess because we have never really had a break from writing since the beginning, there is always an idea for a song or a record happening in the background. I guess you could say we have consciously shifted the focus point of writing, but it has happened gradually and naturally, with less influence coming in from the outside, more self-awareness and exploration.’
That brings us to the band’s latest effort, a split with Tokyo’s Redsheer that was released this past April. SUNDR‘s side equals to two tracks, “I Am Your Prey” and “Talons From Within”. The pair mount up to almost twenty minutes in length, adding more ambient elements to the band’s repertoire, and quite surprisingly bringing back their hardcore side for a few moments. Some might say doing a split at this point would be more of a tease, but I personally feel that these two megalithic tracks add up to a satisfactory experience that properly ties the listener over until the next release which hopefully, and apparently, won’t take that long to arrive.
With “I Am Your Prey” and “Talons From Within”, the band achieves a new kind of driving force to their output that felt to be even bleaker than on the album. After mentioning this to Scott, I learned that my rendition was pretty much the exact opposite of the band’s as they felt the tracks included a more hopeful undertone than ever before.
‘For me, these songs represent turning the lens inward, and a transitional stage for our band. Following the narrative from Loss and The Canvas Sea, in these songs I had the realisation, that the ‘world’ I was hopelessly fighting against, is me; ‘talons from within, I am your prey.’ There were a lot of conflicting emotions involved in the writing of these songs, a stressful time for our band which eventually led to a lineup change, but also such strong inspiration and motivation from collaborating with a band like Redsheer, who we had recently forged a strong friendship with on our first tour of Japan. All of these factors are present in the songs. “I Am Your Prey” speaks to anger and frustration, “Talons From Within” is a self-exploration and realisation. I think we will look back at this split as a turning point, the ideas that emerged from those songs will be expanded on with future releases.’
So the bands collective gaze is currently directed to the immediate future, which is pleasant for any fan to hear. SUNDR is the kind of an engine that’s running constantly, and the aforementioned wait for new material won’t indeed be too long of one. To wrap up this multi-wagon train of thought of mine, I’ll once again leave you off with the bands own words about things to come. And if you managed to get this far without pressing play on any of the track embeds, now’s the time to amend that whopping faux pas. You’re all in for a treat.
‘We have a new album currently in the mixing stage, most of our attention is focused on finishing this record right now. We are in love with these songs and can’t wait to share them, this has been another learning experience and we have some exciting plans for releasing and touring the record. I can’t say exactly when this will happen, but we are obsessing over it. We have one more show for 2019 planned, we’ve been speaking with our good friend Sam Haven about collaborating for some time, and this show will be a rudimentary version of something that I hope we can continue doing into the future. We will be reflecting on our older material and welcoming our new unreleased songs to take their form in the live setting. Sam and ourselves will be playing longer sets accompanied by live visuals by another good friend, Wilson Bambrick, in the intimate space of Nighthawks bandroom on December 21.’
‘Moving towards this show and our next release, I’ve really learned the importance of collaboration. Support artists and friends, put good energy into your community and do things from a place of love.’
SUNDR is…
Scott Curtis
Troy Power
Reyer Boekelaar
Dan Neumann
Troy Power
Reyer Boekelaar
Dan Neumann
Make sure to follow the band on Facebook for updates on the upcoming shows and music, attain the previously released material from their Bandcamp, and simply remember to show general support for music that’s worth noting. And since credits should go where they’re due, the promo picture was taken by Zo Damage, the live one by Spud Robertson, and the video was put together by NJV Media. Ta-ta.
