So people who follow my posts here know that I'm kind of a sucker for female fronted bands that bring in post metal and sludge metal elements. So it should come as no surprise that I plan on giving While Sun Ends a positive review. Of course, it isn't just some bullshit genre tag that should determine whether or not you think an album is good. Fortunately, Terminus is just an incredible overall piece of music. It's an album that goes all over the map with moments of black and death metal excellence balancing against a prog backdrop that also incorporates sludge, post metal and shoegaze. I know that at first that might sound like a bit of a handful, but Terminus proves While Sun Ends to be good enough musicians that they can take this myriad collection of musical stylings and turn it into something powerful and unique. While Sun Ends is my kind of prog record, bringing in a variety of elements and yet never becoming masturbatory but rather ever, and more wonderfully, bleak.
I think the thing that gets me about Terminus is the sheer artistry found in the band. They don't bother with any of the usual flash that progressive metal bands tend to get caught up in. Rather they use the progressive elements as a conduit for the music: the way that things were originally meant to be. If we were to compare it to any other release then Terminus is perhaps most similar to Cult Of Luna and Julie Christmas's excellent Mariner from earlier this year. This record has the same sense of grandeur and overarching heavy metal mastery. There is a very real poetry behind the album and the sense of continuity that you get from track to track, with the bands elegantly crafted crescendos and deafening decrescendos speak to all that While Sun Ends is capable of. The balance of dark and light gives the entire project momentum and the way that the folks in the band perfectly balance the ebb and flow of the music is delicious. It forces you to keep coming back for more because music nerds like me are almost required to pick apart this masterpiece of an album.
It's impossible for any fan of heavy music not to fall in love with Terminus. No matter what side of heaviness you enjoy you will be able to find stuff for you. The band has managed to bring just about everything together under their banner and moreover do it all well. This doesn't feel like a hodgepodge of ideas, nor does it feel like While Sun Ends are trying to show off. Rather Terminus comes across as a full on masterclass in heavy metal, giving you a taste of everything and enlightening you with the burning power that this music can have on every possible level. The execution isn't 100% but the band is still young. That's why While Sun Ends is a stone cold stunner, and Terminus an album that shows us there are still exciting things to come. Terminus shows us that While Sun Ends might very well be THE premier rising force on the metal scene. Few other young band is delivering a sound that is this well produced and this professional. Mature, potent and endlessly exciting, I am thrilled to hear these guys develop.
Overall: 9.5/10
