Achieving a profoundly altered state of mind miles deep within an ongoing fully independent expedition Warsaw, Poland-based “shamanic doom metal” quartet SUNNATA embrace the numinous as they explore grunge-harmonized moodiness, repetitious ritualistic mantra, and strangely tuneful neo-psychedelia within this fifth full-length album. Structured into patiently haunting post-metallic epics with distraught and searching tone throughout ‘Chasing Shadows‘ is another chance taken and another portal revealed as their void-cult continues to find new ways to jump out of their skin. Though the experience provided makes a grand entrance and delivers upon that promise well their exit from this record on the other hand comes in waves of quiet de-escalation which aren’t nearly as gratifying as the suggested starting point.

Sunnata formed back in 2008 under a different name and forged their own sound through iterations on stoner rock, psychedelic doom, and sludge metal inspired sounds ’til changing their name in 2013 and preparing their debut full-length in 2014. Rather than go through the full history of the band up through their fourth and finest album (‘Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth‘, 2021) I would refer the read to my review of said album where I not only praise its exploratory and spiritually implied sounds but detail the changeling spirit of the band in taking a closer look at their discography as a whole. The gist of the appeal of that record was that it’d emphasized its droning “shamanic” fixation and psychedelia inspired qualities while making surprisingly memorable pieces of it, a well-rounded album experience with a handful of bold moves made.

For this fifth album and not-so direct follow-up to ‘Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth‘ Sunnata have simultaneously done the admirable work of thinking and moving outside of the stoner/doom metal box over the course of their two most recent full-lengths while reaching for a style which is accessible by way of droning attrition and rich sound design. It variously works and doesn’t work for me as much as I do appreciate their whole post-doom and sludge heavy hypnotism as it transforms into something uniquely direct by way of mantras performed, generally spoken-sung in eerie droning harmonies, etc. This comes with a natural tendency toward repetition of phrase(s) in song as well as beat-following cadence shared from piece to piece. Charming as these newly realized traits are on ‘Chasing Shadows‘ they allows for an ~album-spanning exploration of mood which yields a singular atmosphere (or, dramatism more-or-less) which doesn’t always deliver on their potential for catchier, tuneful movements revealed within their last two releases. There are a few blips on the radar within the first five or so songs, though, as “Torn” has this weird Nirvana-lifted vocal run where you’ll otherwise feel the heavy dose of ‘Degradation Trip‘-era Jerry Cantrell applied to their stoney, post-rock syncopated meditations per groups like Yob and Ufomammut (by way of Russian Circles) which we’d expect from these folks at this point. This kinda sums up what is best about ‘Chasing Shadows‘ as it writhes out of old skin into something new.

The eccentric but instantly characterizing vocal choices made here effectively dominates the searching hypnosis of their rhythms during the first half of the album’s ~53 minute run and this could either serve a point of enlightenment or a fresh point of irritation depending on the listener. Opener “Chimera” lands this spaced ship softly to start, repeating its questioning mantra in stalking and smoked out tempo changes ’til its space rock elevator finally engages on the way out and while I’d found the greater map of this song and its breaks into rushed sections invigorating to start the vocals were the main point of interest and simply because they were not only evocative of the whole Alice in Chains dynamic taken to a different degree of multi-tracked drone but the range of tones used in this sense had instantly elevated and estranged this new version of Sunnata. Again, “Torn” does well to assure they’re sticking with that approach and the desert prog-sludged exclamation of “Wishbone” suggest there is yet even more they can do with it. Those opening moments are masterful, full of personality and clearly crafted with extreme attention to detail and overall flow through the greater oeuvre these folks have achieved herein.

Since 2016 Sunnata have recorded all of their music live in studio, performing it in unison for the sake of practiced and realistic interaction but this shouldn’t suggest that these are raw, unedited, or live feeling in terms of the atmosphere of ‘Chasing Shadows‘ recordings. Recorded by way of engineer Marcin Buźniak (Axis Audio) at W Dobrym Tonie Studio the sense of space occupied by the instrumentation here is not richly acoustic so much as positioned with great sense in the mix where the guitars are presented in great crackling excess on a piece like “Chimera” but also able to reach for a sludgier, contained tone on “Wishbone” without feeling unrelated. Drum presence is crisp in the window presented but notably set aback so that the vocals and guitars might lead while the bass guitar acts as a monstrous wandering overlay, its appreciable tone able to weave in between all of the saturated guitar layers and additional dubs. It is a richly dynamic sound comparable to the Satanic Audio set recordings of past releases from the band and of course this probably comes down to the mix/master aiming for more of a post-metal level of dynamism rather than the scuzzed stylization of psychedelic/stoner doom.

The first half is just way better, man. — As we pass through the more atmospheric sludge metal-sized dynamic applied to this sound for a heaviest yet Side A peak with “Saviour’s Rift” these folks have once again made their case well and it all comes together beautifully, the thought feels complete and the fixation of the first half hour is entirely well rounded in its presentation. The issue of squeezing a double LP’s worth of breathing room into a single record is of course a question of loss of fidelity on vinyl, not an issue I can address here with any reasonable practicum, but I will say that I’m not sure each of the two ~28 minute spaces made for both sides are equally worthy in statement. Each of the two halves of ‘Chasing Shadows‘ are completely different in mood as a direct result of the use of dual-harmonized lead vocals in different purpose as Sunnata dials it back to a hum for the first two big steps into Side B as “The Tide” finds a darker psychedelic post-doom current which groans and wails without any real directive launched at the listener. “Hunger” makes a bit more eye contact in its development and uses more of a lead-and-refraction relationship between the vocal performances but further dissolves the momentum built within the droning yet tuneful muse of Side A. “The Sleeper” does a halfway-there job of reprising that initial feeling but we’ve ended up somewhere else entirely and no doubt the tonal shift on the second half of the album is just fine, texturally compelling and eerie to say the least, but it won’t stick in mind as profoundly as the first half hour of this nigh hourlong experience.

As a listening experience ‘Chasing Shadows‘ would have been all the more compelling and repeatable if they’d cut the unrelated de-escalating jam of the final song and nixed some of the interludes along the way. These’d only served to overfill a record which’d been potent enough otherwise and that lack of a much needed final editing hand either suggests there were -more- songs to choose from and this’d felt right for the artist or they’d wanted to include everything from those sessions. Of course I peck at these details because I’d felt Sunnata had presented an album which’d made a case for their ever-shifting modern psych-sludge/doom metal sound better than ever within this album but didn’t stick the landing and kinda rambled off into the distance once they were there. I am nonetheless impressed with that evolution beyond their fourth record and still find Side A to be among the more compelling, memorable doom-related stuff I’ve heard this year in theory but the whole of the experience narrowly missed that point of greatness for my own taste. Still a high recommendation and a well above-average experience for folks attuned to psychedelic doom of the spiritual and ritualistic variety as well as folks seeking out “post-doom” metal options which still yield the core efficacy of doom. A high recommendation.

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