Album Review: Shade Empire – Sunholy

Well over two decades into their musical journey, and a long six years since fifth album Poetry of the Ill-Minded, Finns Shade Empire come storming back into focus with their sixth long player Sunholy. Nine songs of epic symphonic extremity, the band have managed to blend the beauty and brutality which has become their trademark with an ease that is addictive.

The album opens with “In Amongst the Woods”, an early single, which provides the pulsating intro to the album. It segues neatly into “The Apostle”. This really demonstrates what Shade Empire are all about, with soaring clean vocals jousting with croaked black metal style along with visceral roars that make you wonder how the band can deliver with such velocity. It’s a fierce start that really brings the band’s unique style to the fore. The sweeping blasts of symphonic metal cloaks that driving riffs and thunderous delivery that rages below. Dual guitars scream, howl, but also embrace with emotional introspection. The calmer parts see the band drift into elements of In Flames, and other such melodic metal outfits.

As the album progresses, the band’s style, which fuses large, dramatic symphonic elements with their black and death metal overtones becomes more apparent. They utilise walls of synths on songs like “This Coffin is an Island”, crafting a sound that is both familiar and yet unusual. The mix of black and death metal vocals with such melodic cleans work surprisingly well, and although the interplay of symphonic elements, strings and choral snippets will make some shudder, fans of Septicflesh, Dimmu Borgir, and Dark Tranquillity should find something to enjoy.

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It’s the unholy fusion of styles that perhaps marks this as one of the more challenging albums to listen to. Gnarly, darkened edginess works in harmony with an atmospheric veil that sits across the album. Female cries and uplifting choral parts vie for position with Henry Hämäläinen’s croaking roars on “Maroon”, a track that is both enchanting and frustrating in equal measure. The former due to the immensity of the overall composition, the latter because it presents as a little too over the top at times. Like several tracks here, it is long, this one clocking in at just shy of eight minutes.

More sprawling songs follow, with “All Consuming Flame” taking the attention with a flowing style that is underpinned by a chugging riff that compliments what is going on in the background. The ebb and flow that the band can integrate into their sound is impressive, with the keyboards taking influences from Deep Purple and a lovely saxophone solo which really shakes things up. They build the atmosphere with an oriental flavour for Profane Radiance, although the song races into several dimensions as it expands. And it all leads into the dramatic conclusion, the finale of Rite of Passage, a song that contains virtually every element that this band use.

It’s not for everyone, the contrast in styles sometimes a little jarring and somewhat unorthodox. But that is likely to be an asset for this band as well, and 24 years since they first formed, Shade Empire show that they are still one of the most interesting and original bands around.

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Sunholy is out on September 15th

Check out all the bands we review in 2023 on our Spotify and YouTube playlists!

Shade Empire: official | facebook | spotify

 

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