Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Sonne Adam
Label: Century Media
Release: 2011
Length: 41:44
Rating: 3.5/5
It doesn’t happen all that often that the promo sticker on a CD case, which (usually) compares the music inside to far bigger and better-known names, actually tells the truth. Just because a record features crappy power metal with a screeching vocalist and goofy lyrics about gnomes, elves, unicorns and other fantasy junk doesn’t mean the band is the slightest bit essential for Blind Guardian fans, as those stickers usually claim in big capital letters. But in the case of the debut from Israeli outfit Sonne Adam, for once the sticker is dead on – for fans of Morbid Angel, Asphyx and early Paradise Lost.
On Transformation, the Israeli duo Sonne Adam serve up exactly what you’d expect from the mention of those three legendary metal names: raw, filthy death metal grafted onto a rich dose of morbid, slow, rolling doom metal passages. Sonne Adam, which roughly translates as Hate Humanity, sound exactly that misanthropic, dark and demonic. The record is a completely straightforward, brutal assault of old-school death metal that sounds like it was recorded somewhere deep underground, in vast darkness and solitude. The guitar riffs have such a deep, filthy, raw tone that the whole thing sounds like a muffled scream of the purest rage at everything that reeks of humanity. Sonne Adam are as blasphemous as Morbid Angel, as rawly doomy as early Paradise Lost, and on top of that they slowly flatten you with tank treads and a thunderous sound that recalls Asphyx. The atmosphere created by the muffled, thick-sounding, extremely low-tuned guitars is hellish! Simple, heavily reverbed riffs roll along slowly one after another, and every so often Davidov livens up the otherwise pretty monotonous music with otherworldly-sounding solos that echo like ominous footsteps in the dark. The drums provide a seismic foundation for the riffs and are damn dynamic, which is rather surprising for old-school death/doom metal. It’s the drums that occasionally speed the music up considerably when they go off on one of their excursions and dynamic transitions. Davidov, who played every single instrument, did a truly excellent job. Still, Sonne Adam can’t create the kind of death/doom atmosphere you could listen to anytime, which is something Asphyx have mastered. On the contrary, Transformation is an extremely heavy record, and you have to be in the right mood to listen to it. The biggest minus is the guitar parts, which can drag on in a really nasty, monotonous way, like torn-out entrails. But luckily the slow riffing is spiced up by Dahan’s deep, brutal and evil vocals, which sound like a mix of David Vincent (Morbid Angel) and Martin Van Drunen (Asphyx). Even though his depraved wailing comes off a bit monotone at times, the hypnotic nature of the vocals and the clarity and intelligibility of the vocal lines are a surprise.
Transformation is by no means an easy listen, since you have to be in the right frame of mind to get through it. The songs don’t get into your ears quickly at all – instead they slowly crawl in like a parasite that gradually takes over its host completely. With their debut, Sonne Adam have made a dark, deep, atmospheric album oozing diabolical evil from every pore. And as such, it works.
Lineup
Davidov – all instruments
Dahan – vocals
Production
Eli Pikover and Sonne Adam
Tracklist
1. We Who Worship the Black
2. I Sing His Words
3. Sonne Adam
4. Solitude in Death
5. Take Me Back To Where I Belong
6. Shine
7. I Claim My Birth in Blood
8. Transformation
9. Apocalypse
