Not often enough do we see a band really embrace the phase that they find themselves in as they travel from one release to another. It’s only every now and then that we see such acts come about and give a proper send-off to where they have been before they venture towards new opportunities with fresh horizons, and Sunrot is absolutely one of them. Having made quite a spectacle with 2023’s “The Unfailing Rope”, and it’s here that they realize this chapter of their journey has come to a close and they felt it fitting to give it a proper farewell with an EP that tops things off in all the right ways with its very existence offering credence to the splendor that comes with performing such intertwined art.

It can be far too easy for bands in any vein of metal music to end their works on a bleak note with no salvation, resolution, or hope in sight. It’s a concept that’s almost as old as the genre itself and feels almost too easy to deliver, but there is always something to be said for finding something on the other side of so much suffering, torment, grief, and traumatic pain. A release that can allow you to move forward even if it only ever comes in the form of a faint glimmer of light, that’s something that can really drive a person forward into the next stage of their life. Taking all that they did within their previous effort, it’s here within the five tracks of “Passages” that Sunrot seeks to offer the listener a semblance of reprieve and hope after such a harrowing experience through the human condition that many are sure to have connected with, and it’s every step along the way through this EP that we can see Sunrot expand their horizons along the way. No two tracks anywhere near the same as Sunrot embraces their post-sludge tendencies while tapping into something more hypnotic and primal throughout the whole of the work to make what could’ve been barely a sidebar into something that has much more to offer should you let its waters wholly wash over you.

When the final notes of “Passages” fade away, you are left changed. Despite a runtime that barely cross the sixteen-minute mark, Sunrot accomplishes transmutation of the spirit in such a form that is beyond compelling. Transformative and a real feast for the senses, Sunrot closes out this chapter of its discography in exemplary fashion that both shows off and greatly expands their strengths.

LISTEN to “Passages” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Sunrot on Facebook here.