Band:	Sedna
Album:	The Man Behind The Sun
Style:	Black metal, Sludge metal
Release date:	September 13, 2019
A review by:	RaduP

01. The Man Behind The Sun
02. The Man Behind The Sun [excerpt]

Sedna are moving on. What a better way to do so than with an album made of one 33-minutes-long song?

Sedna hold somewhat of a special place in my heart even though I haven't really thought of them in a while until news of this album dropped. It was back in 2015 that I went to Rockstadt Extreme Fest, which was the very first metal festival that I ever went to, at least the only serious one that wasn't a bunch of local and cover bands. It was the first time I went to a metal festival ever, but also the first time I went with my long-distance girlfriend, and also where things got serious between us. The first band we saw together was Sedna.

I really liked their debut selftitled album, which I've gotten to know through this review, and while I also enjoyed their follow-up Eterno, Sedna became one of those bands that remained locked inside a period of my life, never to be though of again. The Man Behind The Sun was announced as somewhat of a closing moment for the band, who not only went through a big lineup change (only one member remains out of those they had when I saw them), but also a desire to reach for new territories and pay one last tribute to their soon to be past sound. Which would be fitting to finally be what puts them back in regular rotation for me.

The album is, as stated, a single 33-minutes-long track, unless you count the 7-minutes version that is also appended. One track albums are also a bit tricky because, well, you can't skip the songs you don't like, you either enjoy the whole thing or you skip it altogether (though if you really want a "song", that's what the shorter version is for). But being an album oriented listener anyway, having a 70-minutes-long album is as daunting a task if the music is boring regardless of how many cuts between songs there are. From this point of view, The Man Behind The Sun actually feels a lot more complete and impactful than a lot of albums in its style, namely this blend of post and black metal, because it both doesn't overstay its welcome and feels cohesive.

There isn't a lot in the style itself that separates the Italian outfit from a lot of bands in the same style, but everything in the performance feels very tight, jumping from crushing riffs and blastbeats to serene moments to breathe to brooding atmospheres. The album does avoid some criticism of any lack of dynamism that it could've had as an hour long album by simply not having too many moments that feel drawn out for the sake of it or that feel to similar to what already was there. It will not be remembered as fondly as some more famous representatives of the one-track-albums juggernauts, but if there's a post-black metal album I'd wanna spin again, I'd rather spin this than most other stuff I've listened to this year.

I am really curious to see what avenues will Sedna take next. They closed this chapter of their sound quite successfully and have finally regained a "band of the present" status for me.