To mix Stoner Metal/Rock with Sludge Metal influences is something that seems to be hard to do, especially because many fans think that the use of extreme filthy sonorities will improve anything (it’s the opposite: the filthier it is, the hard it becomes to understand what’s being done). And hailing from Melbourne (Australia) comes the quintet SUNDOWNER to try its lucky with “Lysergic Ritual”, their latest full-length. The band recorded the album having the helping hand of Josh Frost (who gave a help on the layout as well), with the mixing being done by Jason Fuller (at Goatsound Studios, Melbourne) and the mastering by Dav Byrne (at Iridium Audio, Melbourne), all to try to align a filthy and organic feeling with a modern definition.

Things worked on the best way possible, because it’s not hard to understand what’s being expressed by the band, but keeping things filthy. And the artwork of by James Osman is really very good. The band’s music can be described as a fusion between the slow approach of Sludge Metal with the organic and filthy appeal of Stoner Metal, but with a Black/Death Metal vocals (due the screamed tunes used on it). It’s like crossing BLACK SABBATH’s classic model used on “Master of Reality” with sharp screamed vocals and more features. Bu one can have the perception that the quintet works on a personal way, evading to overload things with unnecessary filth. And it enables the fans to understand what they deliver.

The album has a charm that is simple to detect, and with songs as “Degenerate Subculture” (slow tempos with mastodonic heavy rhythms unleashed by bass guitar and drums), “Lysergic Ritual” (where some Hardcore and extreme influences are heard on the guitar riffs), “13 Foot High” (very good ‘sabbathic’ appeal and nasty groove, with screamed shrieks of the vocals), “The High Priestess” (the guitars can remind a lot what C.O.C. deliver on “Deliverance” days) and “Paranoia Sect”, the fans of the mix between Sludge Metal and Stoner Metal will have orgasms.

“Lysergic Ritual” has its appeal, but SUNDOWNER has potential to step outside of limits and bring its music to a greater public.