Sunnata – Burning In Heaven, Melting On Earth: Album Review

By Dominic Walsh on 26th February 2021 • ( Leave a comment )

Sunnata are a Polish shamanic doom band. Let that sink in for a minute. Burning In Heaven, Melting On Earth is a real trip.

Released: 26th February 2021

Label: Self Release (Bandcamp)

Format: CD / LP / Digital

Sunnata have created a monster in Burning In Heaven, Melting On Earth. This Polish quartet pack the power and punch of bands like Sleep and Neurosis and the mysticism and mythology akin to Wardruna and late 60’s/early 70’s Pink Floyd.

Burning In Heaven, Melting On Earth is the band’s fourth long player and sees them grow even more upon previous efforts.

The new album can be perceived as a journey of consciousness. We pass through our lives driven by blind faith and false leaders, keeping our goals outside the reach until we die convinced that the time has come, while in reality it is long gone. An individual who follows this path will never fully contribute to society and will never be able to share his love in a healthy way.
Sunnata on Burning In Heaven, Melting On Earth

Crows opens the album with a solitary bassline and gradual harmonic guitars. The tension filled opening builds to a furious head as the vocals and harmonies ensure the songs takes flight. You don’t have to wait long to be blown away by this record. God Emperor Of Dune follows and is arguably one of the best songs of this year. It has an aura of Shrinebuilder in it’s blueprint but put Pink Floyd’s 1970 Pompeii film in your mind as you listen. When I said the album is a trip, this song epitomises that trip. It is glorious and progressive. To have two such contrasting songs at the start of a record, and to pull of this juxtaposition so well is a real masterstroke.

A Million Lives has a more urgent pace with a more straight up rock tempo. There’s a little hint of Kyuss in some of the riffs and the vocals move between the harsh and the raspy. The transition in the song in the middle feels like a Part 1 and Part 2 affair. There is real glory in this album. The low end of Black Serpent will rattle around your lungs. Crunching bass and furious guitars again show the depth to this bands sound and aura.

Völva (The Seeress) has defnitely been cut from the same cloth that Sleep made their name from. It’s trippy and psychaelic as well as being bludgeoningly heavy and brutal. The bass again enraptures as the guitars chime around the song. The vocals have an enchanted feel to them as the song plays out. Again, the tension builds and you await the explosion. When it blows up, it is once again spectacular. Way Out closes the record out with more psychedelia. Sleep are again a reference point, but make no mistake, Sunnata are one of a kind. Way Out is wonderfully constructed and ends a wholly satisfying album full of twists and turns that demand repeated listens.

And with each listen you can peel back the layers of this album’s themes and lyrics that are gracefully woven amongst the transcendental greatness of the music.

Listen to Crows from Sunnata, below.