Grant The Sun - Voyage - Metal Epidemic

Grant The Sun – Voyage
Release Date: 9th June 2023
Label: Mas-Kina Recordings
Bandcamp
Genre: Progressive Metal, Avant-Garde, Stoner, Post-Metal.
FFO: Devin Townsend, Extol, Meshuggah.
Review By: Mark Young

Norway’s Grant the Sun have released a number of EPs in the run-up to this, which have previously sat within the instrumental box.

Machina starts off with a tight, boxy riff that is lit up with some bright sounding chord stabs coupled with almost choir like singing. It’s soon broken with more anguished screams. It reminds of Meshuggah, like a small but perfectly formed version of them, and is a great start. Furthermore, it shows that you are in for a ride through a myriad of different musical genres here.

Death Is Real has real percussive stabs of guitar that possess a clear low end. It has a real psych edge to it when it breaks out the lead break, with the supporting riff keeping it tidy. There is a great progressive section to the end as the more avant-garde comes out.

Mariana slows down with some measured guitar that takes you on a journey with it, and here they really amp up that progressive side of things. The sound is sparse, with those stabs and chords playing against each other, building towards a monumental middle section. This shows where they lie in terms of the vision that was possessed, and the entire track would be at home playing over the credits of a Sci-fi film. The ending is a maze of guitar that leads back to the start, ace stuff.

Vertigo brings us some more absolute quality music, it’s so well put together that as it makes its way through the progression the hairs stand up on your arm, it grabs on that emotional level. When they go deep, it is effective and is so natural as to fitting the overall sound. It’s not heavy for heavy sake, it’s just that’s what they felt was the best fit.

Hits Like A Wave starts with a chef’s kiss of a progression, and I’m running out of things to adequately describe what I’m hearing. Apart from it is stunning stuff. Seadevil with that spoken word first dropped in Hits… and they kick on with probably the most straightforward riff here. In most hands it could be considered boring, but not here with the amount of embellishing they add, like a painter just putting the finishing touches to a masterpiece.

Grant The Sun draws a close to proceedings with a heavy attack, followed with some shouted vocals that are odds to the main riff here. It’s disquieting having that counterpoint but works so well. It has that same appreciation of melody, of construction, that permeates the entire album. It’s built on an emotional level that comes from the progressions used.

And then it’s all done. You won’t get everything in that first listen, and I recommend listening to it all the way through to get that full effect of what they have created here.

It’s not often that a bio actually nails the content you are about to hear, and it probably doesn’t do it full justice. I’m actually glad there is only 7 songs on here, because with my limited vocabulary I rapidly ran out of positive descriptions to use because it was that good. Phenomenal stuff!!