The albums receive was like a two-bladed sword. Black-metal purists bash the album for not being true black metal and other's seem to love the album for the new steps it takes in the world of black metal. I personally think the post-rock and shoegaze influences are a great addition to the otherwise-boring-ish endless stream of blastbeat and screeching vocals. The mix between the genres is constructed well in Sunbather.
The album starts with a song titled Dream House which in my opinion is a perfect epitome of the band's style. Also some of the screamo elements come clear in the track. Dream House ties in with the next song Irresistible forming together a 12 minute duo of songs. Irresistible is sort of an outro to the starting track.
Next is the title track of the album, Sunbather which is first of the three over-10-minute songs of the album. It continues the strong feeling of the album. Sunbather shows amazing expression of feelings of loneliness and sorrow both lyrically and composition-wise. After Sunbather comes another one of the more soothing tracks called Please Remember. It derives elements both from noise and acoustic music and works as a bridge between Sunbather and the next monumental track Vertigo. Vertigo starts with a chilling and almost scary guitar play and develops to an explosion a bit after the 3-minute mark. The composition of Vertigo seems the most black-metal-ish to me of the album with all the tremolo-picking and blast beat. Of course the ending is has a lot of screamo influence being a lot slower than the mid-part of the song and features those identifiable post-rock guitars also.
The last couple of Songs are called Windows and The Pecan Tree. Windows is another one of the bridge tracks connecting the last song to the continuation. Windows has an amazing feel of depression and melancholy with the piano sound and samples. The Pecan Tree starts off with a surprising blast beat beginning. Then after 4-minutes of screeching and blast the song breaks to a post-rock styled part which then build up to it's full extent and lets off all the feelings it has left to pass on. The song fades out and almost leaves you wanting for a better ending (sort of a finishing touch, the last burst of feelings).
Other than the ending the album feels and sounds amazing giving you a full experience of the band's message.
8.5/10
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Peace and love,
-Matti
