Russell HughesHundred Suns – The Prestaliis (New Damage Records)
Genre: Progressive Metal
After taking five years to release their first album and $20,000 of their fan’s money, Hundreds Suns must have felt under some sort of pressure to deliver the goods.
Luckily this isn’t a band dipping their toes into the proverbial waters for the first time, but three experienced musicians who have danced this dance before.
Made up of singer Cory Brandan of Norma Jean fame, guitarist Chris LeMasters from Dead and Divine and former Every Time I Die drummer Ryan Leger, the group have been working on The Prestaliis for three years.
The music is a confusing mix of instantly grabbing tunes and ones that seem to pass by like a whisper in the breeze and it makes for a frustrating listen.
Bedburner is one of those that offers the audio version of riding an enraged bull until the bitter end as the songs bucks you one way and another before spinning you into the dirt with a thunderous metalcore-esque breakdown that has echos of While She Sleeps about it.
But after the helter skelter of Bedburner and the marginally less engaging Last Apology – which threatens much but falls slightly short – comes the vanilla December. That seems to mark a pattern throughout the album. There is loads to get excited about but it ultimately just falls down where it matters the most.
This album isn’t just noise for noise’s sake, and there is an especially deep meaning behind Amaranthine – a song about how the internet is a potentially hostile place and a perfect site for unsavory individuals to exploit children.
Those fans that forked out to see this record produced won’t feel swindled out of their cash and have done the music industry a favour by funding the project – but for an album to come so close to being seriously good must cause much frustration.
RUSHONROCK RATED: 6.5/10 Death by a hundred cuts
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