Fifth album by Warsaw based psychedelic Doomsters Sunnata continues their journey exploring the vastness between heavy and softer textures, harmonised vocals, and the trippy for more massively immersive doomscapes.
Its rather staggering thought on how long Doom has been with us – yep, it goes right back to those legendary boys from Birmingham. While the genre still retains its template of traditionally slow rhythms and meaty power chords, over the years it has grown outwards with a variety of interwoven additional flavours. Sunnata (deriving from the Sanskrit word Suynata meaning emptiness or voidness) take that template but adds grungy vibes, doused generously with psychedelic colourings as well as pursuing mostly the lengthy songs approach. They melted minds on their previous album Burning in Heaven Melting on Earth and they duly take the listener on a mind-expanding journey once again.
While they are never in a rush, Sunnata do enjoy holding our attention, and indeed their own as they do partake in the ebb and flow of switching between the loud/quiet, and everything in-between formula. This keeps it interesting and prevents any notion of nodding off. And there no chance of that especially so in the first half of Chasing Shadows. Opener ‘Chimera’ kicks off in grand style with as a loud and proud strident bass, a pummelling beat-down, as well as softer choral stylised vocals which elevates (and this is all just with the first few minutes) before they rock out in an enjoyably direct fashion. It’s a great 8 minutes’ of an album opener.
It might come down to a personal preference of choice for the varying styles Sunnata deal in, but when they have their heavy rocking heads on, the grungy vibes appear in wider view. ‘Wishbone’ containing a cascading riff and Middle Eastern textures is another strong immersive rocker. When they yield other elements, the doom transcends to Alice in Chains psych grunge at the end of ‘Saviours Raft’ and the following two minutes of ‘Adrift (Reprisal). And if you are starting to think they are moving away from the Doomy roots, half way through ‘Hunger’ a good slab of heavy powered chords emerges while the layered vocals keep it very interesting. It’s a slow burning triumph of a track.
Sunnata are one of those rarer breeds from the Desertfest scene (they are indeed playing this year’s London Desertfest) where they regard vocals just as highly important as their fine-tuning guitar tones and bass rumblings. The multi-layering of vocals which sometimes drifts close to monk chanting helps the band stand out from the crowded room. Though like in all areas they are not a one trick pony as the duel vocals of Szymon Ewertowski and Adrian Gadomski are also steeped in an earthy growl when required.
Chasing Shadows may not reach the mesmerising heights of their previous album, but Sunnata are still exploring and pushing their sound and themselves, and it’s a journey worth taking. And it has the potential to grow and reward further with more repeated listens.