The Rays Of The Sun - Living Flowers Gallery
Metal Breath Production

file under different metal

Vera: This CD was released in Czech Republic at 30th of June 2004, but luckily it now has reached our office too. The Rays Of The Sun recently played in their home country to open for bands like Pain and Tiamat. The band released several demos, but now they are signed at Metal Breath Production and ‘Living Flowers Gallery’ has become an outstanding debut. When I visited their website, hunting for more details, I was struck by the alarming news that Michal left the band in the meantime. And that is the guitarist and vocalist! The band stands before the replacement of a core member and that will not be easy. I hope with all my heart that they will continue in the same style!

But let us now focus on the music at ‘Living Flowers Gallery’, for these is very impressive. Most of all it reminds me of In The Woods and if you are familiar with my euphoria about this Norwegian cult band, it will be obvious that this is exceptional class. Music of that kind is made way too little these days, so I take the freedom to lose myself in lyrical descriptions when writing about The Rays Of The Sun. I am aware of the fact that it will not be a killer album for anybody, but for those with a soft spot for atmospheric escapades of bands such as Katatonia, Anathema and Opeth, there sure is something to pick up here. Core words of this album are: spatial, stimulating, psychedelic and mesmerizing.

The songs are packed with deformed, twisty guitar-sounds that leads you into another dimension without the use of any stimulants but the music of ‘Living Flowers Gallery’ itself. This fits completely with the holistic way of life: slow down, enjoy and let yourself go on the liberating sounds of this music as guidance. In a quadruplet of songs, the slightly introvert vocals of Michal are supported by female vocals of Daniela, and we better do not think about a frail gothic singer here, but about the atmosphere of the above mentioned In The Woods, consequently a passionate expression of sounds. The guitar-lines of Michal and Ervin are akin to The Edge in a track like ‘Life Runs Through’, particularly to the experimental ‘Rattle And Hum’ era when U2’s guitarist could loose himself into psychedelic soloing that descended a certain trance atmosphere over the breathing meadows. With a small sniff of goodwill I can also mention The Cult at the times of their best album ‘Sonic Temple’ (aka Led Zeppelin). But from the third song on the spirit of In The Woods gets a hold of these Czech musicians for good and we are swept away in a spiritual universe of a homonymous style. This is one of the huge surprises of 2005.

Rating 90/100 (details)

http://www.theraysofthesun.wz.cz