Sujo
Ondan EP

Sujo is another one-man shoegazy-black-doom-post-whatever metal project, who released a compelling E.P. entitled Ondan earlier this year.

The opener, ‘Ondan’, wouldn’t sound out of place on a Deftones record, with its hazy atmosphere, melodies buried within the almighty fuzz. This dies in a swirl of claustrophobic electronics to conclude the track, before savage but rather rudimentary blastbeats fill the air as the following piece, ‘Lost Numbers’, kicks in. Beneath the crude 90’s Black Metal drums lie some soaring melodies that ebb and flow beneath the mire. Indeed, Sujo are one of those bands like Skullflower whose subtle melodies and enjoyability have to be unraveled slowly over a period of time, as there are so many layers to the band’s compositions. We reach the three-minute mark of ‘Lost Numbers’, and some rather ominous reverby keys take the precedent. This continues for a while in a kaleidoscope of ambiguous noise to conclude the track.

Track 3, ‘Repose’, begins with a catchy drumbeat, and conventional, melodic guitar work. This is at odds with anything we’ve heard so far, and reminds me strongly of Devin Townsend’s solo work from the early 2000s. Glorious post-rock melodies pervade the middle of this song, and the intrigue never lets up, before another twisted, synth-driven blur breaks it down into nothingness. This act of building up and destroying appears to be the main theme of Ondan, obviously typical within the realm of post-rock/metal, but Sujo provide enough intrigue to reward repeated plays.

[Visit the band's website]
Written by Jack Taylor
August 21st, 2013

Comments

Leave a Reply

Privacy notice: When you submit a comment, your creditentials, message and IP address will be logged. A cookie will also be created on your browser with your chosen name and email, so that you do not need to type them again to post a new comment. All post and details will also go through an automatic spam check via Akismet's servers and need to be manually approved (so don't wonder about the delay). We purge our logs from your meta-data at frequent intervals.

  • Yoth Iria - Blazing Inferno
  • Suidakra - Darkanakrad
  • Chaos Invocation - Wherever We Roam....
  • Ad Vitam Infernal - Le ballet des anges
  • Thy Catafalque - XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek (Twelve: The Beautiful Dreams Are Yet to Come)
  • Aara - Eiger
  • Mammoth Grinder - Undying Spectral Resonance EP
  • Wretched Fate - Incineration of the Pious EP
  • Kaivs - After the Flesh
  • Witnesses - Joy
  • Mythbegotten - Tales from the Unseelie Court
  • Worm Shepherd - Hunger
  • Chained to the Dead - Only Hunger Remains EP
  • Entheos - An End to Everything EP
  • Trollwar - Tales From the Frozen Wastes EP