Sonne Adam - Transformation review
| Band: | Sonne Adam |
| Album: | Transformation |
| Style: | Death metal |
| Release date: | April 04, 2011 |
| A review by: | X-Ray Rod |
01. We Who Worship The Black
02. I Sing His Words
03. Sonne Adam
04. Solitude In Death
05. Take Me Back To Where I Belong
06. Shine
07. I Claim My Birth In Blood
08. Transformation
09. Apocalypse
By now everybody is aware of the enormous wave of revivalist death metal bands that appeared two years ago, being this year when the real explosion was heard. When so many bands are basically doing the same thing you just have to follow your instincts. You just know when it's a band that really feels the music they are making or just want to jump on the latest trend (cough Vallenfyre? cough). Fortunately Sonne Adam belongs to the former group with music that displays a considerable amount of passion and dedication for our beloved death metal cult.
It kind of goes without saying what this album is about. Transformation is quite a misleading name in that sense. Want originality? I kindly suggest you to leave. Want modern and/or technical death metal? Get the fuck off. Among this gigantic sea of technical, sterile and plastic "modern" death metal there are bands like Sonne Adam, reminding us what the genre used to be like: simple, effective, and truly evil.
Taking influences from bands like Morbid Angel, Asphyx and especially old Paradise Lost, Transformation offers around 40 minutes of old school death metal. Basically the whole package is here: Morbid and groovy riffs, organic drums, sinister growls and good crunchy/bassy production. These guys decided to spice things up a little bit and put a nice portion of doom on it so the result is deliciously evil and almost gives a ritualistic vibe. Just listen to the first song and feel the fog and its deathly atmosphere slowly surrounding you.
As one of the strongest acts among the revivalist death metal movement, Sonne Adam is also one of the most promising. Now as a part of the Century Media family and with Transformation only as their debut, this young band will get the attention they deserve and the potential to stand shoulder to shoulder with the older bands. So what are you waiting for? Close the curtains, turn off the lights, light some candles and let the ritual begin?
We who worship the black?
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 6 |
| Production: | 8 |
 | Written on 29.12.2011 by A lazy reviewer but he is so cute you'd forgive him for it. |
Comments
Comments: 23
Visited by: 179 users
| psykometal A staff guy... Elite Posts: 6101  |
This sounds very promising. Although I did enjoy Vallenfyre thank you very much, lol. I will definitely have to check this out. Great review.
---- ~Zep, Database and Forum Moderation~ 
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374  |
Written by psykometal on 29.12.2011 at 20:29 Hhahahaha Hopefully it didn't sound more harsh that I inteded. That album is good, would give it a good 7 but it feels pretty uninspired to me  Thank you for the comment, I was aiming for a short and to the point review. 
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| psykometal A staff guy... Elite Posts: 6101 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 29.12.2011 at 20:31 I personally feel you achieved just what you wanted. As I have not listened to it yet I can't agree or disagree about it's level of inspiration but based on your review and another review I have read about it though I'd say it's quite inspired (by OSDM, lol). I'm probably going to dl when I get home later so I can see what it's all about. Since they apparently fall into the "OSDM Revivalist Movement" I'd say if your feelings of uninspirement stem from it's inability to sound new and refreshing then I would have to retort that since it's "OSDM revival" it's not going to sound "inspired" if you are looking for new and refreshing. However if you think of "inspired" as wanting to revive OSDM and sounding like OSDM and it fulfills the task of "OSDM revival" as well as it sounds like they do then I'd say they are quite inspired from that perspective. 
---- ~Zep, Database and Forum Moderation~
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Holy shit there were too many "osdm" words so I had to read slow....*reads comment all over again* .... Written by psykometal on 29.12.2011 at 20:41 ...Yeah, I meant that. Hopefully you'll dig the album, the first song is friggin sweet imo.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| psykometal A staff guy... Elite Posts: 6101 |
It sounds like I will. I would also recommend you to Repugnant for some good Swedish OSDM revival if you are not already familiar with them.
---- ~Zep, Database and Forum Moderation~
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| @gent_-_orange Posts: 905  |
Nice review, You summed up this album perfectly. This is the way death metal should be played IMO very dark and "evil", All the songs are great with Track 5 being the highlight. Hopefully this band will go on and make even better albums. If I had not already heard this album you're review would have convinced me to give it a spin.
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| IronAngel Posts: 4882  |
Good review, exactly as informative and descriptive as it needs to be. If I didn't already love the album, I'd check it out. I don't do death metal much, but Sonne Adam were by far my favorites this year.
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| Misfit74 Posts: 443  |
I agree that the review was nearly spot-on. It's more original that given credit for, though. There is some original riffs and songwriting going on here that makes this band stand out from many others. This isn't by any means run-of-the-mill stuff. In fact, it's this band's originality in sound and atmosphere along with a ton of quality, unorthodox riffs that attracts me to this album. The great thing is that we should get more and more from them as the years pass. A very cool album and a band worth following - even for a death metal or brutal death metal enthusiast like me. This has more of a doom/death vibe to it and it's a cool diversion from what I normally listen to.
----  [URL=http://rateyourmusic.com/collection/Misfit74/d.rp,aat,ts,al,o,g,v,r0.0-5.0,n100,oowun]My Music on RYM[/url] Last.fm
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by Misfit74 on 30.12.2011 at 00:02 I understand your points but I just don't think that any band from a revivalist wave deserves more than a 6 in originality no matter how good they are... They are certainly NOT ripping off stuff, that's a completely different story (which is why I gave them a high score on songwritting). The 6 is just representing the fact that after all things have been said: This is still an album of the revivalist kind of band, stuff that has been done by the bands mentioned (With the biggest example being Paradise Lost's debut). Is that bad? Of course not. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that because you can clearly see that Sonne Adam doesn't try to outdo anyone, just doing what they want and being damn good at it. The only thing that really matters is the overall opinion which is of a really strong album. I don't really care for numbers but if I have to explain a bit more then I should say that those four scores on the bottom of the review are always as objective as possible, trying too look at facts no matter how much I like it (or dislike it). It's the overall score I give the biggest weight. I definitely look forward for more albums by this band. Thank you all guys for the comments btw
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| NLthrasher Posts: 189  |
I have the idea that I saw that artwork somewhere before but I can't remembere where...
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by NLthrasher on 30.12.2011 at 20:46 It was one of my staff picks quite a long time ago so there's the possibility you already saw the artwork in the front page 
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| NLthrasher Posts: 189 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 30.12.2011 at 21:59 Ah must have been that I think. I visit this site for about 1,5 years now I think but just recently I finally made an account.
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306  |
I still fail to see what's special about this or any other revivalist death metal band to be honest. I understand the love and appreciation for the bands that pioneered the sound, but for some reason I just can't find anything worthwhile in these kinds of bands. Death, thrash, doesn't matter. Good review though - it justifies the score you gave it and describes the album well. PS guest review?
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 31.12.2011 at 04:30 Yeah.... Nobody loved me that day. You weren't present  Glad you liked the review though.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| @gent_-_orange Posts: 905 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 31.12.2011 at 04:30 IMO the old school death metal revival bands are way more interesting then the thrash revivalist bands. But with both movements their is not much originality. That is no problem for me TBH because I really dont care about originality as long as the music is good. To me this band simply plays great old school death metal. I can understand why you you dont find it anything special at all mind and I agree fully when you say that the bands and records who inspired them are superior.
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Written by @gent_-_orange on 31.12.2011 at 18:06 Totally agreed. I'd rather listen to something totally unoriginal but good than something totally original and bad. Better well stolen than badly thought up.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| @gent_-_orange Posts: 905 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 31.12.2011 at 18:10 Exactly, Originality is a nice bonus and all but its the last thing going through my mind when I hear some well written music.
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 31.12.2011 at 17:42 Fixed.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 31.12.2011 at 21:58
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| NocturnalStalker Metal Addict Posts: 889  |
Well... I really enjoyed Vallenfyre's album so, if you say that this one is better, I need to listen to it. And soon.
---- "And we are not who we think we are We are who we're afraid to be" - Lux Occulta "The Opening of Eleventh Sephirah"
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| Sunioj Posts: 3894  |
Im going to see this band later. i hope to be carried out in a stretcher! great band.
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by Sunioj on 28.02.2013 at 14:54 Nice!!! Late me know how they are live. This kind of death metal should sound monstrous live.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Sunioj Posts: 3894 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 28.02.2013 at 15:27 Yeah, it was fucking brutal. I would definitely recommend them if they come around to your area. It was more an unofficial gig and it was at a bar, so it was really nice to be close to the stage and even talk to them, also they played a pretty long setlist so getting into the vibes and atmosphere was great. And actually, I was thinking - I hope this encourages more old school dm bands to form here or even come from europe to play with.
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