Sun Splitter

Yet another worthy addition to Chicago, IL's diverse metal scene, Sun Splitter, with new EP II, have created a unique fusion of styles, some blackened, some doom, some almost unintelligible underneath the layers of unsettling noise present throughout the proceedings. The band's use of a drum machine brings forth the obligatory Godflesh reference, but with the addition of ambient, distorted vocals, the more experimental aspects of Blut Aus Nord also come to mind. The riffs are no small matter of discussion either; sometimes simple and given to industrial repetition, over the course of each of the lengthy four songs (the shortest clocking in at over six minutes), the group successfully morph their initial motifs into things entirely different, as on "Earth Burner," where themes hearkening back to the lurking doom of Trouble and Candlemass rear their ugly heads over a bed of increasingly harsh noise. One can only hope that a full-length to better sketch out these intriguing ideas is soon to follow.