Taken by the Sun: Taken by the Sun

Thomas De Quincy's "Confessions of an English Opium Eater" recounts the author's experiences with opium—the good, the bad, and the withdrawals. It's a famous work of non-fiction, one that English majors (like me) had to read. I remember enjoying De Quincey's strange and powerful account and I sometimes find myself wanting to go back and read it again. This album has a track called "Confessions of an Opium Eater" that surely borrows its title from that famous text. As a song, there isn't a whole lot to it, mostly a lead-in to the final track "Ornaflux." Still, it has a nice reflective quality that I enjoyed. It's a quiet moment on an otherwise rather loud album. I liked "Demons Tempt the Dying Man with Crowns" best, probably because the title spoke to the part of me that tried to picture the title as though it were referring to a painting and not a song. I could easily imagine an epic painting, perhaps something from the Renaissance that shows demons swirling around a poor, dying, man, offering him things that he may yet desire, even in the moment of death. The song is pretty evocative as well. I also liked "Fuse," a track with a soft beginning that turns into something bold, dramatic, and powerful. Check out the way the drums enter the track; they drive things forward with relentless and angry intensity. For the most part, I enjoyed listening to this album, though it isn't necessarily one I'd go back to time and again. I preferred the tracks with the long titles and liked "Fuse" as I mentioned above. Taken by the Sun is clearly a very good band, but their blend of doom and post metal and haze doesn't always mesh as well as it might have.

Track Listing:
1. Scars
2. Demons Tempt the Dying Man with Crowns
3. Fuse
4. Red
5. Detached
6. Volatile
7. Confessions of an Opium Eater
8. Ornaflux

Added: November 9th 2015
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 1812
Language: english

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