Band:	Sunpocrisy
Album:	Atman
Style:	Progressive death metal
Release date:	2009
A review by:	BitterCOld

01. Æon's Samsara
02. Aprosdoketon
03. Insanity's Glove
04. This Illusion

This unsigned quartet from Italy cites Opeth amongst their many influences.

To say Sunpocrisy was influenced by Opeth would be like saying that Celtic Frost might have had an impact on Fenriz and Nocturno Culto of Darkthrone or that the members of Kingdom Clone (er... Kingdom Come) might have owned a Led Zeppelin record or two.

The biggest problem with citing a band like Opeth as a primary source of inspiration is that if you have set the bar pretty high for your band, and setting the bar that high is almost setting yourself up to fall short.

Fortunately, the members of Sunpocrisy acquit themselves rather well on their initial 4 song EP, Atman.

"Aeon's Samsara", the opening track is pretty good. It begins with quiet, clean tones, clean vocals, before alternating back and forth between the clean passages and heavily distorted riffs and harsh roared vocals. Basically, they followed the standard Opethian formula and did it well enough.

The second track, "Aprosdoketon" is fairly straightforward in comparison and really caught my attention. The riffing and general thrust of the band went from just distorted in the opener to aggressive. The song kicks in with, and is dominated by, a really cool, winding, almost middle-eastern flavored riff. Maybe it's the added aggression and velocity of this track, but the roared vocals felt more urgent than on "Aeon's Samsara". Finally, at a couple points in the song, drummer Carlo was beating up on his kit so ferociously that even [url= http://www.wwtdd.com/2009/02/rihanna-might-need-plastic-surgery/]Chris Brown[/url] thought he was a bit harsh.

"Insanity's Glove" and "This Illusion" continue and close out the EP, and both follow the same basic format as the first - clean bits, soft bits, harsh, loud distorted bits - ebbing back and forth between the two. "Insanity's Glove" includes a piano to the intro, and "This Illusion" shows perhaps a little Tool influence during the intro portion, as well as a couple sections of soft vocals over a chugging guitar line. The band also exhibits a little Mastodon flair during some twin guitar runs that are reminiscent of the guitar lines during the breakdown section in the middle of "Blood and Thunder" off Leviathan.

All in all, while the music is not particularly groundbreaking, it is certainly well executed and was an enjoyable listen. The members of Sunpocrisy are skilled at their respective instruments, work well together, and are brimming with potential, potential that can hopefully be realized even more fully on future releases.

So if you dig Opeth or similar acts, definitely go give them a listen.