Sun of Nothing – Maze (Review)

This is the fourth album from Greek doom/sludge metal band Sun of Nothing.

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve heard from Sun of Nothing – well over a decade in fact – so Maze appearing unheralded into my world was really unexpected, although greatly welcomed. If you’re unfamiliar with the band’s blackened sludge metal horror, then I can heartily recommend their entire discography to you.

Each subsequent Sun of Nothing album gets shorter and more refined, which has now culminated in the 37 minutes of new material we find ourselves with on Maze. Their last album – The Guilt of Feeling Alive – came out in 2011, so we’re well overdue a new hit of the band’s abrasive presence.

This is an unwholesome mix of dark doom, scathing sludge, and vicious post-metal heaviness. The band’s Bandcamp page mentions bands like Khanate, Godflesh, and Discordance Axis as reference points, and these work as a decent starting point for an introduction to what you’ll find on Maze.

Well, after so long away Sun of Nothing haven’t lost any skill in their art. This is nasty, filthy stuff, but it’s imbued with an uncommon emotional weight that’s instantly arresting. The venomous riffs, lethal melodies, and piercing screams all work together seamlessly to produce music that is impactful and affecting. Sun of Nothing’s blending of extreme music and emotive character is well-developed and very enjoyable.

Maze manifests as an apocalyptic wasteland populated with the dying embers of a once vibrant world. Sun of Nothing use their thickly atmospheric blackened sludge to build vast sonic vistas that are at once broad and claustrophobic, bringing together the band’s depth of mood-focused approach with the oppressive weight of a failed existence. It’s weighty stuff, but Sun of Nothing pull it off with the ease of veterans.

Intense, visceral, raw, and engaging, Maze is the sort of solidified slab of nihilistic darkness that I can’t get enough of. Don’t miss out on this if you have a taste for things that lurk in the extreme metal underground.

Essential listening.