This is the fourth release from the band since first releasing an album in 2018. On that release there is a track which for me was one of the most beautiful from that year. It is called “Forward We Move, Upward We Climb” and to me that is a description of the uplifting and bright music created by the force behind the band, Christopher (Chris) Garr. He composes everything and plays all the guitars from which exquisite melodies and soundscapes flow.
Although the two last albums have titles to give you a slight feeling of dread, I cannot help but find the music emotional and inspiring. I might go out on a limb and say that it is as if Garr was inspired by the sonics created by Explosion in the Sky´s The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place and decided to develop the beauty of those sounds and make it entirely his own by creating The Sun Burns Bright´s music with soaring and captivating crescendos which is having the effect of holding your breath while watching a swarm of starlings, and being stunned by what you witness.
Creating tracks like ”Absent” and ”Dormant” is an impressive effort. On the first one, guitars in different modes with echo effects advance until a melodic soundscape lifts the music upward, goes faster only to be met by a swirling distorted guitar which takes over and fights for attention. Everything becomes a bit heavy before it develops into slightly dissonant elements inserted right into the beauty. The second one uses more hard-hitting drums and bass below the heavy sonics. Heavy guitar sounds on this album are not “dense heaviness” compared to some metal music, but a transparent heaviness that lets the light and air through. On this and other tracks, it gives a glissando effect that evokes a feeling of gliding through the soundscape. Towards the end of the track the music calms down with slow playing guitars echoing toward each other driven forward by the bass to meet the next uplifting sonics.
The swarm of cinematic emotions the album contains opens with a short electronic introduction on the first track, ”Omnious” before light guitar picking sets the album in motion. The guitar heads forward to a more distorted sound pushed by the prominent bass work and drums. The track rises to a crescendo before it is lowered down to the guitar picking again. Then the guitars led by high pitches shines through the very melodic crescendo. It is so extremely catchy and memorable that you think you might have heard it before, but of course you have not. It is just that Garr is creative and highly capable of making memorable melodic sonics in between the layers of the soundscape that is always lifted by a rising high pitched post rock guitar.
”Echoes of Tomorrow” is another track with engaging melodic themes. There is a slow reflective beginning with clean guitars slowly developing a melody accompanied by a deep groovy bass and steady drums. There is in fact a couple of melodies developing and establishing themselves before the sonics rise with the transparent distorted guitar mode and crushes forward to be met by a high-pitched tremolo guitar piercing through the soundscape. It lowers a bit, just to build up a vibrant crescendo with guitar tremolos.
The album closes with ”Transience” and it might be what the sorrow dripping from the longing tremolos tries to tell us before dissolving into swaying cinematic sonics. But let it be said, transience does not seep from the album´s music, or the other releases by the band and neither does it bring thoughts of hollowness. I would say it fills the cracks which that hollowness might have created. The album´s title might be a nod to the sci-fi book by Michael J. Sullivan or it might be a nod to the feeling of life slipping through your fingers creating an empty void. However, this music is a nice way to begin filling that void as summer is here and the sun shines bright again.
