Release Date: August 13th 2025. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD
Uyaga - Tracklisting
1.Devil on the Mountain 01:43
2.Sigil 08:20
3.Gnosis 07:27
4.The Owl 06:21
5.Sunbearer 07:03
Members
Vocals/guitar - Jordan Hunsucker
Vocals/guitar - Alex Marr
Bass - Rob Pedroza
Drums - Elan O'Neal
Review
Uyaga is the debut album by Doom/Stoner Metallers Sunbëarer and the record opens with a totally different vibe than I initially expected. As the opening track Devil Of The Mountain is an instrumental piece with the band exploring Americana, Country and Southern Acoustic Rock sounds which gives a false impression on what to expect throughout the album. Though, it’s a great track that ranks as a superbly instrumental piece.
From this moment Sunbëarer resides in the same world as SLEEP, MONOLORD, YOB, UFOMAMMUT and SHRINEBUILDER with their highly intelligent style of long drawn out Doomed Out drone passages that almost moves over to Drone Rock territory. The music is quite gloomy and has a thunderous Prog Metal effect with Sunbëarer building up mammoth levels of Distorted volume and Cosmic energy which becomes quite Post-Metal obsessed especially with the mixture of clean and harsh vocals.
Sunbëarer keeps to this style of music on the standout tracks of Sigil, Gnosis and Sunbearer though there’s multiple moments where the band keep with a low-key sound heard within the first track for brief moments at a time. Sonic experimentation is mostly used as a weapon of choice for Sunbëarer to demolish your hearing especially with the neverending use of distorted drones and amplifier reverb adding a level of violent instrumental passages which have a slightly stripped back audio quality to them.
The record is always striving to bring a different style of Psychedelic Doom/Stoner Metal that does have a slight “Appalachian” or “Southern" flow that allows Sunbëarer to bring their own groovy creative and destructive style to the album. The delicate balance of Post-Rock and Ambient Grooves is another epic touch which allows the music to become gloomier, heavier and more threatening with each passing song.
The excellent vocals from Jordan Hunsucker and Alex Marr work superbly well together that shows the “LIGHT vs DARK” aspect throughout Uyaga that never distracts from the enjoyment from the spectacular instrumental melodies, passages and distorted movements that Sunbëarer plays to the very end. Rob Pedroza on Bass and Elan O’Neal on Drums provide the storming rhythm section that keeps everything ground which is perhaps where the real magic develops so the sludgy guitars played by Alex and Jordan have more than enough space to destroy the Psychedelic soundscapes and COSMOS with.
Uyaga is a highly emotional and psychedelic journey from Sunbëarer who bring their own original and stylish sense of wonder to the underground scene with epic grooves to match.
Excellent and Highly Recommended.
Words by Steve Howe
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