DAYS OF THE FALLEN SUN

I was first introduced to the art of Junius at the close of 2011. The Swedish spooksters in Ghost had been trumped by some unfortunate Visa issues and forced to step down on a tour opening for Enslaved and Alcest. Although part of me had been excited to see Ghost perform, I kept an open mind when Junius were announced as their replacement; after all, I figured there had to be a reason they had been chosen to fill the gap. By the end of their short set, I wasn't just sold on them, I was hooked; they were, in a word, amazing, and still stand as one of the best openers I've ever seen perform. While their sharp musicianship and atmospheric style took them to some great lengths in my book, it was their tight craft of songwriting that made them stand out to me. That same strength is a large part of what makes Days of the Fallen Sun such a success. In spite of its length, Junius have forged a deeply felt and ambitious epic that comes off as being much more than the sum of its parts. Don't make the mistake of underestimating Days of the Fallen Sun as an EP; it's arguably the most powerful thing the band have done so far.

I've seen Junius called everything from atmospheric sludge metal to post-punk to modern prog, depressive rock and post-rock. All of these are true to varying degrees, but Junius have always reminded me most of Katatonia, particularly Night is the New Day. Although they're enormously melodic and atmospheric, Junius have the crushing distortion and heaviness of many a post-metal heavyweight, like Neurosis. This fusion of opposites has made for an excellent foundation for melancholy, and while I'm sure some will argue about what genre they supposedly belong to, rest assured that the style suits the mood perfectly. Days of the Fallen Sun seems conscious of this dichotomy of style; while the four 'main' songs emphasize driving energy and distortion, their corresponding interludes each highlight their apocalyptic atmosphere. Even at their heaviest, Junius conjure thick waves of ambiance, and it may have proven to sound cluttered, had the band not such a firm grip of their sound by this point.

Junius have written these songs with this question of atmosphere taken into consideration. Although there's no cost to the band's considerable intensity and momentum, the guitars restrain themselves from many of the perks they usually have in rock music. Instead of conventionally sculpted riffs, the guitars work primarily in driving rhythms; instead of solos, there are ambient textures. This might sound boring on paper, but it's a clever and ultimately necessary way to accommodate everything Junius wants to have in their sound. Most often, the finishing touches are delegated to the synths, which are used to create a distinctly apocalyptic atmosphere, keeping in line with the music's darker tone. Rest assured, there is more than enough interesting instrumentation to compensate for the perceived sacrifices. To solidify Junius' strength of style, Joseph Martinez's vocals sound like they were bred specifically to match the band's sound. His delivery is infectiously brooding and carries weight and dynamic enough to make the heaviest and lightest moments of his performance shine in equal measure. The brilliance of Junius' songwriting ultimately lies in that it is able to capitalize on the vocals' proficiency with melody, all the while making the arrangements sound larger than life. Even if only the album's highlight "A Day Dark With Night" has anything remotely close to a 'longer length', the music gives the constant impression that you're listening to something of a much greater scope.

With this ambitious level of arrangement in mind, it was a clever move for Junius to space out the tracks with interludes. The interludes by themselves aren't much to speak of, but they do manage to hit a sweetspot between unassuming ambiance and textural complexity. Although the faux-choral "(Nothingness)" is a mite less impressive than the other three, the interludes add welcome atmospheric padding that make the album feel significantly more expansive than had the four songs been left on their own. The soft noise and mellotron arrangements might slip right past an inattentive listener, but they offer a respite from the main course. It's a small thing to have added these interludes, but it really works in the EP's favour. While they have always been great songwriters, Junius' albums have suffered uneven flow in spots, and it's in this department where Days of the Fallen Sun stakes its claim as the band's brightest chapter. The four songs are clearly defined, but the pacing might allow the EP to be swallowed as a single suite. This sort of successful flow is rarely found in full lengths, let alone EPs.

Days of the Fallen Sun has gotten me excited for the prospect that we might hear this sort of tightness and mastery of structure on a full-length from Junius someday soon. Perhaps it's more to my own discredit as a listener and attempted critic, but my greatest frustration with the EP is simply that I'm left wanting more. Although Junius are drawing from a relatively narrow palette of ambiance, melancholy and depression-fed melody, each of the songs here feels memorable unto itself. I will eagerly anticipate Junius' next move; if they improve their skills any farther, we'll be looking at a potential masterpiece for their third full-length. So, what are you waiting for, Junius? Greatness awaits!

(83/100)

Review originally written for Heathen Harvest Periodical

Junius' 2011 full-length album Reports From the Threshold of Death has become one of my favourite albums of all time recently. Junius, instead of trying to create a varied and changing album, instead tried to hone in on one particular sound, and attempt to perfect it. And to be honest, I think they did. The sound on that album, known now as 'atmospheric rock', existed somewhere on the spectrum of alternative rock and doom metal, with melodic and accessible song structures, complimented with a delicious post-punk drum kit and some of the most pummeling guitars I have ever heard, it felt like nothing I had heard before.

Now we have their first proper release since then, a 26-minute EP, adorned with absolutely stunning artwork, and four new tracks. However, two of the tracks on this EP, "The Time of Perfect Virtue" and "A Day Dark With Night" have appeared on split releases previously, with Juarez in 2010 and Rosetta in 2011 respectively. So, this EP seems to be a sort of transition EP, giving a proper home to two older tracks, and releasing two new ones. We can assume then, that Junius will bring forward something more final and a bit longer in the near future, and Days of the Fallen Sun is simply a bridge between the two albums, something for the fans to consume while they're preparing something bigger. The sounds on Days of the Fallen Sun is basically the same as the sound we heard on Reports From The Threshold of Death ? dense and layered atmospheric rock. Although there are a couple of different sounds featured on this EP, for the most part, this is basically an annex from the previous album, and although I can enjoy that on this EP, I kind of hope Junius pushes further in a new direction on their next full- length, since another full album of this could get very tiring.

In terms of differences, we'll first notice that while nearly every song on Reports was in the range of 4-5 minutes, here, we haven't got a single one. From the four short ambient pieces, to the nearly 8-minute epic "A Day Dark With Night" and the short, but equally awesome "Battle In The Sky", this certainly shows Junius breaking their pattern a bit. The latter is certainly a bit of an experiment, a short, mostly instrumental piece, with some of the best (and heaviest) material Junius have done. It's a pretty pummeling track (even for them), and is one of the only tracks by them that could be classified as 'metal', as opposed to just 'really dense rock'. The track also features some distant harsh vocals that remind me a bit of the style Ihsahn has been using for his harsh vocals recently, and contains one of the best drum performances I've heard in a while. Unfortunately, the mid-section, which sounds like it could be great if done right, is destroyed a bit by the near-brickwalled production, to the point when I really can't make much out of it.

And now, I guess, to the similarities, and that certainly is one of the bad ones. I actually feel the brickwalling and loud production is even worse here than it was on Reports, and really does affect how you enjoy this, especially if you're listening in anything lower than 320. I understand that loud wall-of-sound production is a huge part of Junius' sound, but there are moments when they want to go from loud to louder, and the only way through is to smash any dynamic range into pieces, especially evident during the first few minutes of "A Day Dark With Night", when it tries to build up, but finds itself hitting the edge too often. The other part of this EP that I'm not too keen on is actually Joseph Martinez' vocal performance, although this doesn't really affect my enjoyment much. On this album many of his vocal lines feel a bit breathy and weakly delivered, or simply just weak vocal lines. On Reports, many of the vocal lines were huge and soaring, you'd want to sing them as loud as possible spoiler: click to read, but here, they take a backseat, and I'm left to focus my listening on the instrumentals. Again, I don't really think this is that much of a negative thing, but I feel it does mean I still prefer Reports to this.

But the instrumentals, once you get past the brickwalling and the difficulty of being able to hear anything, are truly awesome. Give it a good set of headphones and some concentration, and you can hear some really great parts. The strings underneath the opening riffs of "Battle in the Sky" are a highlight, as well as the subtle triplets on the drumming, and the brilliant National- esque post-punk kit sounds. We get plenty of tremolo and reverb here, but one of my favourite parts is after the post-rock break in opener "The Time of Perfect Virtue", with the drums and bass riding up in a paced and tense mood, lifting up before one of the biggest choruses these guys have done. Instrumentally, the final chorus here is absolutely massive, but I really am left wanting a bit more epic in the vocals here.

Days of the Fallen Sun is a good little EP, showing Junius doing a couple of different takes on the style they had with Reports From the Threshold of Death, but I do feel they should move somewhere new for their next album, since the effect of turning up the volume every few bars does get a bit tiring.

7.1

Originally written for my Facebook page/blog: www.facebook.com/neoprogisbestprog