Behind the Sun is a self titled debut album of a five piece rock band, which originates from Israel. The album, released in mid 2009 contains 12 great tracks, and is the fruit of one and a half years of hard work.
As such there is no way to describe this band’s original musical style. Although their heavy music have elements of Opeth, and their slower pieces and guitar work have influence of a 70’s rock band, they still managed to distinguish themselves with a style of their own. At first the album might sound a little bit mono tone, maybe because of the lack of keyboards and other sound effects which usually create an overdose of ‘atmosphere’ in an album. But after listening to it a couple of times, and understand the lyrics, you realise that this is a true work of art, which can be quite addictive. Once you start listening to it, it is impossible to stop it in the middle and change the cd.
Forget about power chords, since their guitars are as melodious as they can be, which is a great plus for this album and band. Their progressive guitar solos mixed up with fast and up beat drum works can distinctively get hold of your attention. A perfect example of such master piece can be heard in the middle of the sixth track, Running Water. The vocals and singing style also blend very well with the music style, as can be noticed in their second track, Wishful Thinking. One can instantly feel how much passion, while at the same time anger, there is their front man’s Gad Erez voice.
To make sure the album is a complete work of art, one must also make sure to get to know more about the lyrics, and understand where these five men are coming from, the beautiful land of Israel. Yet, man himself ruined and abused this heavenly land, like many other places. Their lyrics address the breakdown of what we call today’s modern society, corruption, politics, terrorism and mostly of all, war. So much for progress!
Well done to Behind the Sun, for starting up their career with such great album. The band have a very good potential and I won’t be surprised if they engage a good deal later on in their career, and surprise us more with even better music at a later stage. Keep up the good work. Well it’s time for you to listen to the real thing. Click here to access their MySpace page, and listen to their music.
In my teens I used to own a number of black metal albums from Cradle of Filth and some other black metal bands. Although I do appreciate the talent needed to play such genre of music, I never managed to stick to such fast and noisy music while not understanding a word from the lyrics.
