Band:	Sedna
Album:	Sedna
Style:	Black metal, Sludge metal
Release date:	October 20, 2014
A review by:	Auntie Sahar

01. Sons Of The Ocean
02. Sons Of Isolation
03. Life | Ritual [Feat. Stefania Pedretti]
04. Sons Of The Ancients [Feat. Mike B.]

In need of an album to prove to all the Gorgoroth and "one trve Mayhem" worshipers that black metal today is anything but confined to Satanic and dark themes? Sedna have got you covered.

The Italian trio of Sedna are an interesting bunch, and listening to their debut album is a lot like gazing through a kaleidoscope, with a shape changing each each subsequent time you view it. The music at work here is a curious and flexible blend of sludge and black metal, but perhaps not in the way that we've commonly become accustomed to. This isn't Coffinworm or Lord Mantis spewing bile-soaked sludge at us, and the idea Sedna are working with here sounds a lot more like "sludgey black metal" than it does "blackened sludge metal." That is, the sludge embellishes the black metal more than vice versa, at times even manifesting itself in an almost post metal sort of melodic aesthetic that can serve as a nice, relaxing calm for the listener before the black metal elements kick in again. The massive opener "Sons Of The Ocean" is an excellent display of just how on point these guys are with this sort of pacing.

Production on Sedna is equally as impressive, and the one thing that must really be applauded here, is that (much like I've seen with The Great Old Ones) the band can nail the classic black metal sound with a modern mixing technique, still making things sound furious and heavy, but not too murky and buried either. As the music makes its twists and turns through black metal, sludge, and its more atmospheric edge, the sound quality likewise becomes more immersive as it needs to. The brief interlude of "Life Ritual" is a curious snippet at the more hypnotic techniques Sedna are playing around with throughout the album, and it would certainly be interesting to see them go farther with this type of approach in the future.

For a debut, Sedna is a considerably powerful release. Being one who prefers when black/sludge bands don't have too clear a line drawn between their fusion, I love the stylistic ambiguity going on here, as it helps to cast a pleasantly mysterious vibe over the whole album. An excellent genre-bender, with great compositional building and attention to detail, Sedna is a latter-year release that BM, sludge, and (maybe?) post metal fans alike shouldn't let pass them by.

Check it out.