REVIEW: Hail the Sun's "Divine Inner Tension" via Equal Vision

California’s Hail the Sun is a band I’ve had a lot of admiration for and sort of my last guard in the swancore scene. From their technical prowess, involvement in the community and overall energy they were an easy band to follow. However, like most bands in the genre, things started to fall apart for me in 2021’s New Age Filth. On that record Hail the Sun showed that they were sort of at a progressive stand still and that they were starting to gain some toxicity in their fan base. Nevertheless, I was excited for a new record, I think my faith was misplaced.

Something that strikes me right away, as always, is that Hail the Sun is a band that can play. The issue is I feel like playing is all they’ve done for six albums now. This band absolutely coasts on their ability to play fast and its sort of gotten old, I want to see them write a song worth that talent. They skirt along that again and again on this record; songs like “Tunnel Vision Alibi” have some cool hooks and a compelling breakdown. What I can’t ignore however is that anytime this band gets close to showing any heart they loop right back around to “wow, cool riff.” This issue becomes especially apparent when the following “Mind Reader” is more or less the exact same song. A lot of it just feels sort of soulless.


Divine Inner Tension also relies heavily on its production and surround sound and yet all of the production is fairly weak. Now, I don’t own top notch listening equipment at the time of writing this, but I also feel like between three different speakers one of them should have some balance between channels. It’s honestly unprofessional and appalling. That and certain decisions come off as forced art, “In My Dream” and “I Saw You Hanging” do not need to be split in two and it sort of comes off as silly.


I wouldn’t normally share this side of the process but on first listen this was going to be a four. As I listened more, I found that I didn’t think the record was bad, I was just expecting that by album six we would have progressed somewhere. Hail the Sun feels like a band absolutely locked in a time loop and I really hope that they progress beyond this at some point soon.


Our rating - 6/10
  1. Tunnel Vision Alibi
  2. Mind Reader
  3. Chunker
  4. 60-Sessions Blocks
  5. Maladapted
  6. The Story Writes Itself
  7. (In My Dream)
  8. I Saw You Hanging
  9. Tithe
  10. Feeble Words
  11. Little Song
  12. Under the Floor

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Best of Month: The top 25 songs of the year

Hi, it’s me, it’s Claudia, and today I’m going to do something I haven’t done yet. So every year I do the top ten singles of the year, but I don’t actually even listen to singles anymore. Unless I know they’re going to be singles, like on their own, otherwise I feel like they’re spoiling the record for me. This year I thought it’d be fun to broadcast my top twenty-five songs of the year because I do this every year for friends, mainly myself, but now it can be content. So, this won’t be a highly produced blog post and instead be very casual but hopefully you’ll get something out of it. If you’re coming from Reddit read the link below before leaving any comments for me on here or Reddit itself and let’s get started. Also, quick note. Some of these did not come out this year but are on records released this year. In those cases, assume I haven't heard the track till this year. Coming from Reddit? Start here! #25 “Glow in the Dark” by Mothica is from Rocksmith+ but it's also just
Read more

Best of Month; the Top 10 Albums of 2023

Image
2023 has come to a close and it was a lot to unpack. After relocating last year I had to figure out what to do next, admittedly a scarier process than moving itself. I’ve settled in now, changes have gone on, there were a lot of hard times and a lot of great memories made throughout the year. You may have noticed, if you’re a long-time reader, I was far less open about my own personal life in my reviews. If you’re new and this is your first year here, then hey you never knew this part of the blog. In these blurbs there are personal anecdotes, but they are far less revealing. Regardless, thank you for even clicking here. This year for my own writing was possibly the best yet. I reviewed more albums in one year than ever before and worked with ten artists to promote their stuff before the release date. If all the stars align there’s one more thing coming out this year. I hope you had a great year yourself, are having a relaxing holiday season and enjoy this recap of albums. Please suppor
Read more

Best of Month: The final reviews of the year

Image
Best of Month! We wrote so many reviews this year there were a ton leftover. So, to open the year end stuff this year, we're emptying the vault. There are a few pre-requisites for reading this year (but only if you came from Reddit) So look for that below. From Reddit? Start here! Rat Jesu - Prepared to Die (Drixxo Lords) I have been a pretty public cybergrind defender on the timeline, but in all honesty I haven’t dug into the genre on my own time. I’m not sure if you would consider Rat Jesu cybergrind but they’re definitely part of the movement, in fact I came to this record by following this artist from a feature on the newest Blind Equation. As I said above, Prepared to Die isn’t so much cybergrind but it is a neat, quick nu metal record with hyperpop influence. James from Blind Equation does show up as a feature and the song he’s on is a hit regardless of genre. My favorite track on the record, however, has got to be “Priestess of the Godless Valley,” There are two other featur
Read more