Surfing from one site to another, I stumbled upon a site with an incredibly long list of band names and genres. Browsing a bit in the "Progressive" section, a rather strange band popped up... the name of the genre they played was "Ambient-Goth-Prog." The second thing that left me speechless was their nationality, "German"... and already here comes the question, how do these Germans manage to play ambient-prog? But the third thing that amazed me the most was that the singer is the drummer... which might work in an ambient context, considering that it's not particularly difficult to play and sing simultaneously... but in a Prog context?!?

Anyway, I burn the CD, click play... (I skip the first track because it's a pretty silly intro!) and this extremely harsh, almost Doom-like riff starts, with uneven time, classic prog... I started to think that the person from the site where I discovered the band is really into heavy drugs! I then continue with the listening... and pure magic!

...I try to explain the journey that Dark Suns made me embark on in this album: In the first 3 tracks, "A Slumbering Portait," "The Euphoric Sense," and "Her And The Element," you enter this dark and frightening forest, interspersed with this network of grim riffs and a keyboard, eerily ever-present throughout the CD, that accompanies you until at a certain point snow starts falling. With "Daydream," the next track, serenity appears on your face, and you are catapulted in front of a window in the middle of winter, where snow is falling outside... and feelings of tremendous calm envelop your entire body. Then "Anemone" begins, one of the most beautiful pieces on the CD, where you can especially feel the power of the keyboard that adds character to the piece, particularly in the chorus...

The other tracks that follow are intertwined with a concept of malice and melody... perhaps this is why they each last from 7 to 12 minutes... and then they complete the mental journey! This CD and this band, like few others, have particularly struck me. After such a cinematic description, all that's left to do is listen to it!!!

An ambient-prog concept I had never really listened to! Recommended for an audience with a good ear for melody mixed with malice! For those who hate melody, there's always Cannibal Corpse. Certainly, the German band Dark Suns is not for you!

Tracklist Lyrics and Videos

01   Zero (02:08)

02   A Slumbering Portrait (02:32)

03   The Euphoric Sense (05:54)

04   Her and the Element (06:39)

05   Daydream (04:40)

06   Anemone (06:27)

Here I lay in the calm of night
Surrounded by an infernal light
The eternal white
Can't remember my yesterday
If I knew when I've gone astray
Anemone
Listen to the ecstatic sound
Surrounded by what I finally found
Your eternal ground FEAR
Pristine hope and its fragrant bloom
Try to show me a way out of gloom

Take this time
Enter the unknown
Fly

So tell me why could I cry
When a clown puts on his very funny show?
Dreams by pantomime
A silent magic
Tell me how could I smile
When there's emptiness behind his mask?
Clappers in my head
Consume my heart away

(in my arms I hold the flower of the ages)
Here you lay in the arms of mine, and smile
And at last I know my love for you won't hide
No one marks the tender place we're
Coming from
Though there is nothing else that I would like
To show them

Take this time
To enter the unknown
Fly

Tell me why could I cry
When a clown puts on his very funny show?
Silent pantomime
The make-up saddens
Tell me how could I smile
When there's emptiness behind my mask?
Engulfed by all behind my mask

Am I lying to myself
About being different from you? no

(they're flying
...my years, days, hours, minutes, seconds
But I can't stop this envious time)

07   You, a Phantom Still (11:16)

08   Gently Bleeding (07:18)

09   Abiding Space (07:09)

10   Patterns of Oblivion (10:49)

11   One Endless Childish Day (12:58)

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