Sunwølf – Eve – M N Levinsen

Sunwølf’s new album Eve (Named after Matts newly born daughter) is about to be released and it is a vulnerable, painfully stripped bare, personal journey into gloomy anxieties and vast atmospheric post-rock landscapes created by entwined guitar melodies.

The recording of this album was approached a little different this time, where Matt tried to use as many first takes as possible to capture the raw sound and feeling of the melodies as possible, and I have to say that he has succeeded in doing just that! The recording, instrumentation and production was also done by Matt, but he got some mixing help from Ross Halden. I loved Beholden To Nothing and No One but Eve is something different, it is Sunwølf in its purest form.

I’ve stricken by the sound, it’s simplicity, it feels organic in a sense. It grows, evolves, breathes and can be felt.

”Gilded Heart” starts this soul searching journey with guitars chiming in the listener, drums echoing while the heart wrenching first anguished roars from Oliver Melville (Kick Nurse) gives me the chills every time. The track emanates a warmth in an otherwise cold environment, like the the sun in the spring.

Thought Eve feels lighter and more approachable than Beholden… it holds its fair share of melancholy, doom and gloom. ”A Rest Mid The Gloaming” starts as slow and doomy as it gets and climbs up to the skies as only atmospheric post-rock can do.

After Oliver Melvilles guitar accompanied monologue in the beginning of ”Quell”, the track exhales in an up-tempo post-rock explosion.

The sorrowful heavy heartbeat of ”Haar” and Nathan Coyle (Opium Lord) harsch roars is unsettling to listen to, but also holds some melancholic beauty that touches your heart. ”Haar” is dark and murky. I really like the drumming on this track and together with the smooth guitar melodies it just hits all the right spots. The even grey skies continues when ”Sun of My Soul” picks up where ”Haar” left off, with a slight ray of light coming though. It is meditative and I like how it builds up and gains strength as it progresses, but it is over before I’m done with it (Matt, make an extended version, please…).

The somber ”Eve” follows, with the delicate guitars gently pushing my mind towards quiet evenings with a calm sea in which the red sun lowly goes to rest. Out of this calm sea ”Brother” arises, it has this sleepy free-form, experimental jazzy feeling which slowly gains strength, and I get a kind of ”State of Non-return”-feeling while listening to it, and that is not a bad feeling!

The last tracks of the album, ”Frontier” and ”Winterworn”, are calm, drone-y and meditative, resting on light ethereal guitar melodies and a steady beat. Slowing down the tempo, preparing you for the inevitable exit to real life.

Eve will be released on April 18th. (My pre-order is a done deal already)
Get it here: http://sunwolf.bigcartel.com/ or here: https://sunwolfuk.bandcamp.com/merch

Artwork by: Sean Doherty, http://www.seanerty.co.uk/