Wisconsin noise-rock trio SINKING SUNS is back with their first new album in four years! Inspired by death of the band dog/mascot, Dark Days is scuzzy, swampy and riff-heavy tales of death in nature and other quandries. Dropping via Reptilian Records (Chat Pile, Fight Amp) in early July, the record receives a proper teaser with the new song premiere, which we’re delighted to give you in its full glory below.
When last we heard from Sinking Suns it was via 2018’s Bad Vibes LP (also on Reptilian Records). That album was possessed of bottom-scraping Am-Rep style noise worship with creeping surf-guitar influence at times and a scuzzy sense of vocal melody throughout.
With this new release, there is also an occasional swampier, gut-churned blues element that rears its head like the bellow of a beast. Speaking on the new material Dennis Ponozzo (bassist/vocalist), said “it’s hard to tell from my standpoint if anything has changed stylistically. Maybe some influences have stuck out more at different times. After writing music with the same guys in this band (almost thirteen years), it’s much like watching your child grow. You see your kid every-day and don’t notice the growth then one day he or she is a teenager before your very eyes.”
Another element in the band’s DNA is the lyrical bent of the outdoors, nature and being at odds with those elements. Hailing from Madison, Wisconsin and spending cold winter nights hunting bucks tend to lend itself to that. Regarding lyrical themes on the new album Ponozzo revealed “a few of the new songs do continue in the ‘death in nature’ narratives, however a few others do involve current events. As an adult, I am not fond of politicized music. Not only does it date itself, but it can be unnecessarily divisive and even corny. So, I’d never write overtly political music. That said, I did write some lyrics with topics involving what was happening around all of us and even some of what I thought might be coming. From the time I wrote some of the lyrics much of it did come true. Other than that I’ll let the listener decipher any meaning to my words.”
Surprisingly though the album title is not only inspired by current events but as Ponozzo relays “the actual catalyst is from an unreleased song about the death of my dog (and official Sinking Suns mascot) Peewee. The day he died was indeed a dark day.”
Pre-order Dark Days HERE.
Existing for more than a decade, Sinking Suns have traversed the mid-west sharing stages with such artists as Hammerhead, Chrome, Child Bite, Skull Defekts and The Crosses (Die Kreuzen). The band has previously self-released a 7”, a 10” EP, and the Death Songs CD (2016).
