Exclusive Song Stream: Sun of the Sleepless – “Phoenix Rise”

Wednesday, 7th June 2017

We are currently streaming “Phoenix Rise,” a song culled from Sun of the Sleepless’s forthcoming To the Elements album, due on July 21 via Prophecy Productions. Sun of the Sleepless is the solo project of Schwadorf (aka Markus Stock), the mastermind behind two of Prophecy Productions’ most popular acts, Empyrium and The Vision Bleak. Sun of the Sleepless creates poetic black metal dirges that twist with cold, raw atmospheres.

Comment from Schwadorf:

“There’s opposites. And where there is opposites there is energy and evolution. Movement. No light without shadow. And a wild power lies within this. You have to destroy to create. You have to let go to receive. The Phoenix is the ultimate symbol of this and a totem of all artists. There’s some old school Metallica in the riffing, of course newer Dissection and also a lot of Empyrium and old Ulver vibes especially in the epic ending which features very famous lyric lines by Tolkien which I wanted to use since as long as 1995 when I first read them. Here they are now – ending the album in a very appropriate way hinting at the future…”

Despite its formation in 1998, To the Elements is Sun of the Sleepless’s full-length debut, following its split EP with Nachtmahr (2004), the band’s debut EP, Poems to the Wretches Hearts (1999) and the coveted 7”, Tausend Kalte Winter, released in 2000, which featured a trip-hop take on the Darkthrone classic “En As I Dype Skogen” (!!).

Now, 17 years later, Sun of the Sleepless rises from the grave to deliver a startling album of new material! With To the Elements, Schwadorf creates songs that brim with aura and mood, building on the foundation that was laid with SoTS’ previous works while injecting an entirely new level of intensity and incandescence. Described by its creator as, “A fist in the face of a shallow world!” the record’s icy cold black metal holds a doom-laden edge warmed only by poetic lyrics inspired by great romantic writers of the ages.

Tracks such as the searing “In the Realm of the Bark”, the darkened “Phoenix Rise” and the haunting “Where in My Childhood Lived a Witch” are indelible fortresses of frost calling for comparison to stylistic stalwarts such as Emperor, early Ulver or Katatonia, brought to life anew with an original touch. Sun of the Sleepless has returned and the world is on warning!

Order To the Elements at this location.

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