THE SUN AND THE MIRROR - Dissolution to Salt and Bone (Review)

Written by: The Voiceless Apparition

Like all of you dear readers, I'm always looking for new music. The joy of finding new artists and albums is such a fulfilling experience. There's no denying: music is such a special aspect of our lives. It can transport us to other dimensions, it can bring back memories in an instant, and so much more. So it's always good to be open and broaden your horizons to new experiences, and this is something I have been working on.

Today's review is for the new album from the ambient/drone/doom metal duo The Sun and the Mirror. To be completely honest and say that prior to this review, I had never heard of this group, but I wanted to discover something new and foreign to my ears. Luckily I found it with their album Dissolution to Salt and Bone.

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The first thing you will notice with this album is the flow. Dissolution to Salt and Bone doesn't act as an "album" per se, but more as a soundtrack of sorts. The songs aren't really "songs," they serve as movements to this entire 44 minute opus.

​"Interval I" begins the journey. Already you can tell that this will be a moody expedition. The noisy droning dissonance acts almost like a weeping choir. It has this overwhelming sense of melancholy, which is quite astonishing for there being no instrumentation or rhythm. But that leads into "Currents." The repetitive singular note playing over the top of the music itself really adds a lot of tenseness to the track. It's quite an uncomfortable experience, but I really respect that. After all, music should take people out of their comfort zone. 
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The last track I'm going to talk about is the closer "Katherinella Augustri," a tense, evil, and methodical atmosphere-building piece. The ambiance in this song is used to create a very sinister, malevolent vibe. I love the way these small bursts of noise peter in and out of the movement at random times. When the actual instrumentation kicks in it acts more as ritualistic "heaviness" than as merely metal instrumentation. It has this really noisy, buzzing, and pounding rhythm. I also love the way the vocals are layered on top of each other on this track. Overall a strong outro to the album.

I'm all for the idea of mixing linear and non-linear genres. I love the juxtaposition of influences and differing spectrums of sonics. With this album you get it all: ambient, noise, doom metal, folk, etc. Now in some cases, some albums may have these diverse ideals in mind, but the end product can be a chaotic and jumbled mess. This album is not that. You may look at Dissolution to Salt and Bone  and think "Jesus Christ, those are some unnecessary genres to blend," but it...works. The Sun and The Mirror are seamlessly blending all of these genres together and making it flow so exceptionally well.

This is a band you need to check out. This is a band you need to follow. Big things are ahead for them and I look forward to seeing where their journey brings them next.

The Sun and The Mirror - Dissolution to Salt and Bone will be released April 4th, 2020 via Brucia Records. Pre-orderhere!

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The Sun and The Mirror can be found:
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