Children of the Sün release new album ‘Leaving Ground, Greet the End’

Review by Phil M.

Swedish band Children of the Sün tell us that they recorded their latest offering in a small cabin in the forests of Värmland, with six regulars in the band that must have been a tight fit… This though, their third album continues in the same folky country rocky style as their prior releases, though the sound here is more polished and more commercial in approach. The sound that they have though is sufficiently different from anything else out there and very much stands out from the crowd.

The album kicks off with ‘SUGAR (Shape of a Gun)’, available with a good accompanying video available on YouTube, the start of which had me laughing out loud:

The track has a great sound, opening with a frantic rocky drum beat before a guitar riff ushers in the vocals and a catchy harmonised chorus. The middle eight has flanged drums – great effect and a great bass riff with vocals over it and there’s a key change into the last verse and chorus.

‘LILIUM’ follows and is much more laid back with more of a folk feel and lots of vocal harmonies in the verse. The paired back guitar sounds mellow (reminding me of something I can’t quite put my finger on) and there’s lots of space between the instruments in the mix, the guitar cranks up the distortion for the excellent contrasting lead break. The powerful vocal work on the track really stands out and is ably supported throughout with backing vocals.

‘Starlighter’ is up next, moving along nicely with a country groove and with pedal steel in the background working well with the guitar and vocal harmonies. There’s a great keyboard sound too, it all fits together well. ‘Comes With Us’ has a more rocky, slightly 70s punky feel to it, but without any of harshness you may associate with those days, and a classy lead break with some harmonised guitars thrown in too.

The short instrumental ‘Glaskogen’ has acoustic guitar backed by the same keyboard sound and is the perfect segue into ‘Lovely Eyes’ which has a guitar riff a little like Metallica’s ‘Nothing Else Matters’ though that’s where the similarities end. The track is nice and mellow though punctuated by some distorted guitar notes. The track finishes with a bass outro and as a bassist myself I wholly approve!

There’s a cover of Led Zep’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’, though this is very, very mellow and half paced with different phrasing on the vocals though they have a lot of raunch to them. It’s sufficiently different from the original to work very well. ‘Gateway’ completes with keyboards and vocal harmonies and a tolling bell giving an ethereal feel.

At thirty minutes a short, but well put together album by the band, it has a nice feel which is very distinctive, and the vocal work and harmonies are outstanding. Give it a listen.

Track Listing:

1. SUGAR (Shape of a Gun)

2. LILIUM

3. Starlighter

4. Come With Us

5. Glaskogen

6. Lovely Eyes

7. Whole Lotta Love