Catapult The Sun - MARTYRDOM (Album Review)

Release Date: March 12th 2026. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD.

MARTYDROM - Tracklisting

1.A Pale Stine 07:31

2.Powerful Dark Objects (Mind Bender) 06:03

3.Insanity Has Thin Walls 05:48

4.Noon Creeper 03:15

5.The Word Made Flesh 04:40

6.Black Sails On Wine-Dark Seas 07:18

Review

Instrumental Doom/Stoner Metallers Catapult The Sun return with another cautionary tale of gloomy heaviness with their latest album MARTYRDOM. The band have evolved from their previous EP’s with a sudden shift into Atmospheric Sludge and Post-Metal heaviness with echoes of PELICAN appearing very early on. Catapult The Sun bring a foreshadowing style of Post-Rock, Prog Metal and Ambient Metal into their overall sound whilst remaining slightly apprehensive when bringing a heavier dynamic to their creative outlook for the album.

The album does feel slow paced at times but this allows the band to bring some creepy elements into their music but adding a cautious Sludge Metal appetite which you can feel and fully appreciate within the excellent opening track A Pale Stine. The song does take time to fully find its footing but once that happens there’s no stopping Catapult The Sun evolving into more OCCULT and GOTHIC based sound.

Though fans of Clouds Taste Satanic will find much to enjoy here. I would even mention BONGRIPPER as well with Catapult The Sun moving into quite bleak sonic based territory on the majority of the tracks especially Powerful Dark Objects (Mind Bender), Insanity Has Thin Walls and Black Sails On Wine-Dark Seas.

MARTYRDOM can be too ethereal and sometimes out there but that’s one of the best things about the album with Catapult The Sun never playing it safe. The record can be quite fantastical and methodical at the same time with the band experimenting with different psychedelic sound effects and cosmic atmospherics which perhaps impresses the most on Powerful Objects (Mind Bender).

Every song is superbly structured with a great balance of “LOUD vs QUIET” dynamics which allows a certain Post-Stoner energy to fully appear and immerse with the dominant Instrumental Doom/Stoner Metal sound that is the band’s main weapon of choice to impress listeners with.

There’s a lot going on with this record and I recommend you give this album a few listens to fully understand and digest with Catapult The Sun exploring many different levels and areas of the whole Instrumental Metal world. The album is quite moody and action-packed as it draws closer to it’s natural conclusion that’s set against a wave of emotionally charged musical performances from the entire band. 

MARTYRDOM is a richly engaging and deeply powerful album that delves into the heart of instrumental music and allows Catapult The Sun to create their own signature style of music to impress the underground scene with.

Words by Steve Howe

Links 

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Catapult The Sun - Dark Sun Festivities (EP Review)

Release Date: June 01st 2024. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD

Dark Sun Festivities: Tracklisting

1.Queen Of Solstice 08:53

2.Dystopiate Haze 07:13

3.Our Pigs WIll Drink Your King's Blood 08:27

4.A Shrine Of Salt 05:46

5.Slowly We Drone 08:55

Review

Sludge/Drone/Doom Metal collective Catapult The Sun return with their new EP Dark Sun Festivities where the atmospheric tones are buried under a ton of Drone based SLUDGE rubble with the band adding haunting and eerie soundbytes along the way. There’s a sense of twisted menace with Catapult The Sun taking inspiration from bands such as BONGRIPPER with it’s bleak and distorted vision that emanates across the whole Drone/Doom Metal platform. 

There’s a vicious LOW & SLOW approach with Catapult The Sun adding elements of punishing Sludge Metal and Post-Metal rhythms. The EP has small amounts of Psychedelic tension slowly building up in the background with the down tuned and heavy Ambient themes that have a sullen muscular sound that can be quite experimental at times.

The gloomy creative journey begins with the hard-edged and equally haunting opening track Queen of Solstice where Catapult The Sun takes time to slowly perfect musical dominance which is down to the multitude of different LOW & SLOW progressive instrumental techniques that are employed here. There’s brief glimpses into SONIC based Post-Rock delivery but this EP is mostly powered by a nightmarish and pounding SLUDGE METAL backdrop which only becomes more DRONE based with each passing moment.

There’s no moments of uplifting instrumental passages with Catapult The Sun happily remaining within the darker vortex of the music they expertly create throughout the whole thirty nine minutes runtime of the EP. Catapult The Sun once again take sounds influenced by the likes of Electric Wizard, Black Sabbath, BONG and SUNN 0))) which they did on their previous releases. 

However, this time round, the music has a sense of urgency especially within the Psychedelic Sludge Metal grooves that appear exactly at the right time for this EP to reach deafening levels of Amplifier Distortion and Heaviness. 

The tracks that make up Dark Sun Festivities are equally as good as each other but things do take a gloomier and violent turn within the bass heavy tracks of Our Pigs Will Drink Your King’s Blood and Slowly We Drone. The raw-sounding production values allows Catapult The Sun to play a more manic and unpredictable style of LOW & SLOW obsessive sounding instrumental rhythms which ventures further into the Psychedelic Sludge world with high amounts of sonic manipulation giving this EP a slight industrial feel.

Dark Sun Festivities is another sublime release from Catapult The Sun who impress yet again with their dark violent take on Instrumental Doom/Sludge Metal which has a sense of aggressive originality appearing on the later stages of the record.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

Links

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Catapult The Sun - CATHODE (EP Review)

 

Date Released: October 15th 2022. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD

CATHODE: Tracklisting

1.The Wizard Of Somnus 07:58

2.Blue Light Hypnosis 08:24

3.Frequency Inhaler 12:12

4.Who Are You (Black Sabbath cover) 06:12

Review

CATHODE is the second release from Instrumental Psych/Doom/Drone/Stoner/Sludge Metallers Catapult The Sun. The band focus mostly on epic long drawn out Drone based Instrumental Metal with a heavy down-tuned FUZZY sideline that matches the bleak Psych/Spaced Out sounds the band wonderfully employ throughout the EP.

Catapult The Sun is powered by heavy and down-tuned AMPLIFIER WORSHIP grooves that feel influenced by bands such as SLEEP, CONAN, Electric Wizard and Slomatics. The music is quite intense with a deep progressive flow to it all. The sludgy vibes are perhaps the heaviest part of the release which you can hear into full effect from the opening song The Wizard Of Somnus.

The song has an eerie Psych Doom Metal backdrop with the Droned Out atmospherics being quite raw and equally melodic at the same time. The music does have sombre production values than allows Catapult The Sun to perhaps draw comparisons to SUNN 0))) in places when the Drone/Doom elements take centre stage. The instrumental work is superbly played with the band playing a more simpler style of music. The music can be quite bombastic and aggressively paced but this all works superbly well when the band merges Psychedelic and Space Rock soundscapes for a more Progressive sound.

Blue Light Hypnosis and Frequency Inhaler both offer a more Post-Whatever flavour for Catapult The Sun to experiment and terrorize your earbuds with. Both tracks are quite different to each other with more Progressive and Distorted vibes being played at a LOUD LEVEL. The band do play a more riff-centric approach on Blue Light Hypnosis for a song that is quite experimental and shows the band accomplish exciting creative grooves on ths part of the album.

Frequency Inhaler is the heaviest and progressive song on the album with the band switching between the many different sounds held within the Drone, Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal underground. Perhaps my favourite song on the record.

The final track is a wickedly entertaining cover of Black Sabbath classic Who Are You. The song does stick close to the original but with Drone based sonic sounds allowing this version to be a more heavier version compared to the original.

CATHODE is an unexpected and violent delight from the Greek Underground scene and showcases Catapult The Sun to be one of the shining lights from the scene with their intense blend of distorted and down-tuned heavy riffage.

Words by Steve Howe

Links:

Facebook | BandCamp