Album Review: Sonum - The Obscure Light Awaits
Reviewed by Sam Jones
We now take our eyes over towards Italy and an act who formed in 2018: Sonum, formed out of Veneto, sporting a black/death metal style and who are now looking to unleash their second full length album, The Obscure Light Awaits. The band can be described as “slow and steady” wherein their first EP, Monolithic, released in 2020 followed by another EP, Divide Et Impera, just a year later. By 2022 the band were ready to take that next great step, and Sonum would do that with Visceral Void Entropy having released a Single some months beforehand. It’s taken another three years to receive a follow-up but Sonum, now, have done just that with The Obscure Light Awaits and this time with Dusktone. Due out April 11th, this will be my first experience with the band and thus I was curious to see what Sonum were made of. Italy has been churning out some great extreme metal lately and here’s hoping Sonum may yet be added to that growing list.
Introductory pieces can make or break a record, especially if you’re a newcomer to the band. In this case it’s a win for Sonum since it isn’t trying to blast your ears from the outset, but rather pull you into this unassuming stance where you think you’re safe, transitioning, then BAM the band hit you with their first true track. Once their songwriting is underway you’ll find their sound carries a similar vibe: intangible, elusive. Though the band harness a black/death metal sound to their performance it doesn’t feel like another blackened metal product; elementally the pieces are all present yet it doesn’t reiterate many feelings other blackened bands this year have given us. Sonum’s soundscape is one bristling with malevolence, with sadism, but its an evil that feels far grander, older, and thus harder to define. There’s something occurring beneath the skin you can’t quite put your finger on yet you can feel it moving, squirming, something heinous but its still to reveal its true form, a form the band never outright reveal fully since doing so would dispel the overarching mystery. It’s a fascinating vibe Sonum play with.
Much the same can be said regarding their riffs too. The band’s black/death metal is on full display, you can tell from the opening minutes what aesthetic they’ve been aspiring for. I’d say they were wildly successful in this for their sound is one that, most of the time, hardly assails us with all cannons in barrage. Sonum present themselves as a band who understand the importance of when to strike as opposed to launching all their arsenal at once. Take a track like “Famine”, early into the record, where its six-plus minute runtime primarily features discordant guitar licks that feel warped, purposefully shattered, as if the world from which Sonum were birthed has been pierced behind repair and what we’re listening to is its universal death rattle. The songwriting hardly sits still, Sonum are far from Progressive though some may argue they absolutely demonstrate traits of Progression within their performance. The fact of the matter is they can write these lengthy pieces without too many restraints keeping their songwriting in place, whilst retaining this semblance of coherent structure with beginning, middle and end without difficulty. That’s no easy task; Sonum are guiding us through this vast and treacherous plane almost blindfolded but know every oncoming step with illuminating grace.
Given this subgenre’s tendency to play at breakneck tempo with every opportunity, its therefore interesting to see Sonum effectively wash their hands of this approach entirely. Considering people will tune in seeking greater exertions of aggression, typified by blackened metal’s more abrasive quality, the band naturally throw in a slew of faster, more intense sequences. But, on the whole, these instances are rare as its clearly not where the band feel at their most comfortable. Close listening will find Sonum at their happiest during steadier, more brooding tempos where they can really inject a harrowing, sombre essence into songwriting that black/death metal doesn’t traditionally see. As a result, Sonum let us view black/death metal not from a punishing angle but one where we’re outside the body, looking down, as we watch our old and emaciated self wither and return to the earth. The slower approach also enables them to invest greater importance upon their riffs; the deliberate, methodical style of playing suggests every note and chord and lick played carries weight and is thus necessary to the grandiose structure of each track performed. It also allows us to enjoy and regard their riffs with greater clarity since the band aren’t inhibiting this idea by playing at ripping speeds; granted, the band do throw speed at us but that is far from Sonum’s primary outlet for such a melancholic record.
I think one aspect of songwriting that’s are to convey in extreme metal is storytelling. This doesn’t mean the band in question are always approaching their music from the angle of a concept album, it simply means a track plays and entertains whilst retaining a sense of momentum that’s natural and satisfying. Even as the band’s vocals don’t change their tone or severity too greatly, you feel like each song is a story told. This would explain why Sonum’s songwriting, despite discordant and purposefully fractured, still flows like a river splitting off into its meandering estuaries. There are times when the drums roll out their greatest blast beats but then there are times where the drums will fall unnaturally silent. With that said, I loved how active the drums continued to be throughout the album’s more nuanced periods whether it be drum fills, rapidly thrown blast beats etc you always feel like that full kit is being implemented but their drummer still isn’t looking to beat you over the head with it. The vocals will be doing their job one moment and the very next their own tempo has noticeably slowed in accordance with the riffs. The band confidently know they don’t need to throw the kitchen sink at us to make an impact, its that understanding of when to strike that lends each track a sense of timing and purpose within the record, as if that track could only be positioned here due to what precludes and proceeds it. Its why a seven minute track designed for erratic, haphazard sounding extreme metal is easier to process and enjoy than more conventional works of death and black metal.
In conclusion, Sonum’s second album is going to be an opus, I believe, that will be looked upon with equal praise and fascination. The Obscure Light Awaits truly lives up to its namesake; this is a fantastic record but its not the kind that’s going to explain as to why that is right away. I can imagine many having to experience this record numerous times over before “getting” it because this frankly is not your conventional work even black/death metal standards. This is a far more nuanced and layered and downright cryptic work than most of what you’ll discover this year, but its precisely this feature that will keep people returning to its myriad, nigh-nascent qualities. Speaking plainly it’s a record that refuses to do as its told; just when you think you’ve got it figured out Sonum throw a multitude of curveballs, like riffs resembling synthesised keys or swathes of songwriting where the violence has subsided entirely in favour of ethereally driven atmosphere championed by the drums’ direction. If the band so chose to, they could easily apply a more Progressive angle to their writing since this record shows us they’re already primed for it. By the time this album ends you’ll feel as if you’ve undergone a journey substantially greater than a mere ten tracks can achieve, yet the end beckons and there’s nought to stave it off. The Obscure Light Awaits is a fantastically introspective record that will find you looking deep within yourself for answers you’ve always known, to questions you’ve always feared to indulge, where fractured design on the surface is rendered complete by songwriting, beneath the surface, that was never told to think within the confines of the box. Sonum are the band black/death metal needs right now and, so shall you when April 11th dawns.
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