Release Date: March 05th 2026. Record Label: Vina Records. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl
Crush The Sun - Tracklisting
1. The Trip
2. Castle East
3. Icarus
4. Forest of Lies
5. Heavy Weight
6. Sirens
7. The Wraith
8. Ghost Town
Members
Casey Rowe - Drums/Vocals
Earl Mudd - Guitar
Jared Jordan - Bass Guitar (Guitar + Vocals on Ghost Town)
Review
Sometimes I even fall out of the loop and miss albums that were originally released last year. Take this great record for example. Carbon Decoy’s second album Crush The Sun was released back in July 2025 but is now being re-released / re-issued via VIna Records. The album is a glorious and highly unapologetic mix of Garage, Punk Rock, Psych Rock, Doom Metal and Stoner Metal grooves that has echoes of Proto-Metal movements holding everything together.
The sound is quite raw with influences such as MC5 and The Stooges that can be heard within its gritty production values. The other musical elements are inspired by the likes of VOLUME, NEBLULA and MONSTER MAGNET with a classic Hard Rock approach being told the tracks The Trip. Castle East and Icarus. The vocals are most definitely from the Garage Rock and Punk Rock way of life but Carbon Decoy are not afraid to explore the heavier areas of Distorted Drone and Sludge Rock which gives this album a highly ;subversive style of the band’s own making.
The vocals and lyrics are on the “OUTLAW” side of life with a real rebellious streak that develops throughout which adds new layers of Noise Rock and freakish amounts of seedy fuzz rock. The album impresses even further when Carbon Decoy embrace an Acid Rock style on the later parts of the record mostly on tracks Forest Of Lies, SIrens and The Wraith.
There’s also a sublime Sixties and Seventies psychedelic aura that drifts into a violent style of Cosmic Rock with unreal “schizophrenic” melodies coming into play. This allows Crush The Sun to be quite a different Doom/Stoner Metal album that you’re initially expecting but that’s one of the albums main strengths. It dares to be different with Carbon Decoy creating their own blend of Fuzzed Up Stoner Metal that gets the job done with splendid results from start to finish.
I maybe late to the party with this album but I’m glad I was given the opportunity to review this superb album as I would have never encountered a great band such as Carbon Decoy.
Excellent and Highly Recommended.
Words by Steve Howe
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