New Sun |Hanged's Fate |Wormholedeath

New Sun comes from Northern Italy, in the stretch between Padua and Venice, started by musicians from different extreme metal backgrounds. An experimental early lineup settled into a four piece: Alexandre “Growler” Piccoli on vocals, Lorenzo “Mr. Gore” Toffano on guitar, Mattia “Basserker” Zanella on bass and Mattia “Banz” Banzato on drums. Their sound sits on groove and death metal, with thrash, melodic death, black metal and modern metal touches mixed in. “Hanged’s Fate” is their release through Wormholedeath.

“Hanged’s Fate” throws six tracks at you, all of them groove-death metal with a coat of black metal frost. The riffs stomp low and set the pace, while the blackened atmospheres hang above them like cold smoke and stop the groove from sliding into plain bounce. Piccoli’s vocals lead the assault, with Toffano, Zanella and Banzato locking the low end into a crushing mass. Mixing this many influences into six tracks is a risky load, and some ideas pass by too fast to register, with the thrash and melodic death touches acting more like seasoning than a real part of the attack. The lyrics follow a psychological descent through control, collapse and self-awareness, a spiral of inner contradictions that never offers an easy exit, and the concept suits the grim, heavy sound.

“Drag Me Down” is where it pays off most, turning inner collapse into release and then renewal, and it makes the idea of destruction feeding rebirth believable. Closing the album on that track is the right call, since the arc of the whole run peaks there, and starting with “Becoming War” sets the descent in motion without detours. The marriage of groove-death and blackened gloom gives New Sun a sound of their own inside Italian extreme metal. A strong six track statement with real bulk and a couple of ideas that rush past before they hit.

|7.8