Thrown to the Sun: Of Oceans and Raindrops (2011)

Review

Foodies want to be able to put a mental pin into every country on the globe to represent the various ethnic cuisines they've sampled. Metalheads are like that in building their music collections. So I was excited when Turkish progressive death metallers Thrown to the Sun contacted me about their free debut album. I'd never listened to a Turkish band before. I was even more excited when I tasted it.

Like a lot of bands from outside metal's normal geographical region, Thrown to the Sun's sound isn't wholly original. You can identify a lot of their influences. "Evoker Pt. 1: A Ground to Fall Upon" sounds like a combination of Opeth and Behemoth. Elsewhere, you'll pick up a lot of Origin and Obscura, or even Strapping Young Lad.


SYL is probably the best reference point, because although they do serve up some progressive Opethisms and some technical death-inspired flavors, they don't go off on long meandering tangents and they don't bewilder you with a smorgasbord of meaningless notes. And while many bands at the progressive/technical death metal cafe can't write their way past the appetizers, the songwriting here is a full meal. Just pick out the occasional jazz break, if you don't like it.

Since my metaphor has been falling apart from the beginning, I'll abandon it here and stick to the facts. The production is over-loud, and the sound blown out in parts, but it's free. And you will remember these songs.



The Verdict: Thrown to the Sun have yet to come into their own, but they have the basics already in place. For the price, you could do a lot worse. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.