There are some days where I just want a new album of pure blooded progressive metal. It seems like the 2000s were a bastion of this, maybe too much honestly, but it feels like precious few bands make this kind of music today. Yes, Sunburst’s new album Manifesto is a nostalgia trip, though with modern trappings. The album releases on June 14th through Inner Wound Recordings.
I reviewed the band’s 2016 debut Fragments of Creation, and that album certainly has a legs. The Greek band has upped the ante on this new album, though. The current lineup includes Kostas Milonas on drums, Gus Drax on guitars, Vasilis Georgiou on vocals, and Nick Grey on bass. Guests include John K on orchestrations, and Bob Katsionis on keys.
John K’s involvement is a major part of why this album is so successful. The band plays not just a pure, but a hotblooded progressive metal that is fierce, unrelenting, and powerful. The inclusion of orchestrations takes their sound to a whole new level, but that’s not the only improvement. The band simply writes purposeful, rhythmically complex songs that make sense after a few listens, and often feel like they are getting ready to run off the rails, so to speak, but never do. The band is always in control.
Sure, maybe the fact that Vasilis’ voice sounds like the combination of Roy Khan (Kamelot) and Mike Andersson (Cloudscape) gives them a boost, too. It certainly makes me feel nostalgic to hear those tones alongside musicians in their youthful prime. There is an undeniable energy and brilliant manipulation of the music going on here that leaves me entranced. The emotion, raw power, and famished passion with which they play is a gift to us.
The album has eight tracks, and for my money, the best two tracks are the opener and the closer. The six tracks between are all great, too, though. I like the two singles, “Hollow Lies” and “From the Cradle to the Grave”, perfectly placed, one in each half. “Hollow Lies” hit me like a ton of bricks right away; the runaway rhythms and how the song gets more and more complex as it progresses, I just love that. “From the Cradle to the Grave” has a great chorus, and might be the catchiest one overall. That one is really growing on me.
“Samaritan” really sounds like a Cloudscape song to me; huge riffs and spacious vocals trading back and forth. So good. “Perpetual Descent” has lots of atmosphere and crystal clear rhythms that are so inviting. “Inimicus Intus” is driving and soulful, especially the solo near the end. I like the title track for how melodious and heavy it is, the perfect combination, and I live the echoing interlude in the second half.
But the opener and closer are my favorites. “The Flood” opens and is simply one of the best songs of the year, no doubt. It is cinematic and larger than life. It features a forceful, gorgeous melody around which everything else dwells and flows, and I love how the main riff also acts like a touchstone for guitar fireworks and changes in flow. Damnation, that song is amazing. The closer, “Nocturne”, is just as good. I love how it is melody forward, and again quite cinematic. It has a bucketful of space and vocal musing to offer, and the climactic ending is wonderful. Those two tracks are worth the price of the album by themselves.
Sunburst are back after several years, and this is no sophomore slump of an album. Manifesto is tightly paced, beautifully orchestrated, and thrillingly performed. If you are a progressive metal fan, especially of the 2000s variety, you need to hear this one immediately.
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The PROG Mind 