SUN OF NOTHING is a metal band from Athens/Attica, Greece, who formed in 2000. “Maze,” is their fourth album…and their first since 2010! Greece has a long history of producing great metal bands and SUN OF NOTHING confidently walks among them. Considering their country of origins, it is no surprise they have a blackened sound to their music. However, they also mix in plenty of doom, sludge, post-punk and noise. In essence, these guys have a very raw and visceral sound that is so abrasive that rubbing a brillo pad across your face would feel softer than this absolute punishing album. The production and mixing matches that visceral sound; it’s raw but not overly as in “recorded inside a toilet that’s inside another toilet” but instead “recorded inside a pit of demons in a world of endless blood soaked nightmares.”

The band weaves together a variety of tempos, sounding deep and depressive when they are moving at a snail’s pace but violent when throwing in a black metal tempo. On top of all that, there is a constant DIY punk energy that makes each second sound like a bomb waiting to go off. It has the perfect runtime of 36 minutes across five songs; since it is so few, I will say a little about each of them. The album opens with “Liars In Wait,” sorrowful blackened guitar tones and rolling drums immediately building up tension. The guitars wind it up perfectly for a release at the 52 second mark. Vocals so pained that my own throat hurt rips over the turbulent riffage and massive bass. The middle part is slow and doomy/sludgy but never lets the song lose its caustic nature. The rest of the song is a tortured crawl through knives (in a good way).

“After The Fall,” begins a little slower but with a creeping methodical approach. The stalking quality of the song is brought to life by the bass and drums, displaying the powerhouse that is the band’s rhythm section. As a massive fan of anything that is doom/sludge/atmo, this song really speaks to me and it is perhaps my favorite on the album. It is a slow, crushing chaos that is under a control that is always on the edge of escaping.

“Ghost Maze,” lets their post influence shine through, creating a song with a cold, mind numbing atmosphere. Imagine getting hit on the head really hard and, as you’re coming to, danger approaches but it’s distorted and disoriented as the blood runs down your eyelids. As the danger comes more into focus, you realize you’re dead before you have a time to feel the sting of the life force pooling under your eyelids. I’m pretty sure the subject matter of this song has nothing to do with the heartwarming story I just told but those are the feelings it evokes to me. The combination of dark melodies and a detached presence make this song disturbing.

“Voidhanger” is like a giant behemoth just lumbering through whatever the hell is in its way. This imminent, inescapable danger is brought to live in this six and a half minute dirge of horror. The song kinda has a feeling of “rolling” like waves in brackish water crashing against rocks. The last couple minutes of the song are dizzying—listen to it with headphones and you’ll have trouble finding your footing after it is over. This is a physically demanding song and that is something great.

The final song, “Buried Endeavors,” is a gritty, nuanced eight minute romp that takes everything great about the album, puts it into a blender, and vomits it back out. The guitars/bass are DEEP and the double bass keeps monstrous at the same time. All in all, “Maze” is a nasty album with a sound that is nearly palpable. The extremity of the album is nothing short of impressive but also just as immersive. Any fan of underground music that goes against the grain needs this in their collection.