By: Peter Morsellino
Album
Type: Full
Length
Date
Released: 17/01/2020
Label: Holy Roar
Records
“Toward
the Sun”
CD//DD//LP track listing:
1). Transcending
2). The New Sun
3). Mire
4). Transcendence
5). Light Bearer
6). Controlling Waves
7). To Ascend (Awakening)
The
Review:
The true mark of an album of
substantial creativity is the listeners ability to interpret it and form their
own connection with it. Garganjua's epic “Toward
the Sun” provides a perfect example of one of those albums. While I
cannot say for certain what the group was leaning into in creating this piece,
it's floating highs and crushing lows certainly create a narrative that simply
begs to be interpreted. In my opinion, this is an album about darkness, and how
it can swallow us whole. More so, it's
an album about the light that peeks through that darkness, and how we can grab
on to it.
Introductory track “Transcending”
offers up a beautiful overture for the listening experience ahead. Solemn
guitars create a dreamy atmosphere while an ominous voice over introduces the
bleak tone of the album. “The
New Sun” continues down this path, offering glimpses of darkness with
fleeting moments of light. Anger
consumes the deep sadness presented in the music before falling back into its
persistent melancholy.
Like angels intermingling with demons,
this hard soft dynamic provides the centerpiece of the album. Beautifully
melancholic melodies intertwine with crushing low tuned doom riffs. Light, ethereal vocals float gently atop the
crushing sludge. All of this comes
together seamlessly, painting a bleak portrait of the depressive mind.
Transcendence and transformation play
a major thematic role over the course of “Toward the Sun”. This is played to perfection in the
penultimate track, “Controlling Waves”. With a much more triumphant tone
than the preceding pieces, Garganjua sheds its darkness with a
newfound fervor that carries into the beautiful closer, “To Ascend
(Awakening)”.
“Toward the Sun”
is an emotional onslaught of beauty and despair that begs to be interpreted.
Give this one a listen and give it your full attention. Garganjua
want to show you something within yourself, and if you let them, you
just might learn something.
