Review by Dominik on March 4, 2025.

Black metal has always been an accommodating genre, capable of twisting any concept into something furious, bleak, and—if done right—utterly mesmerizing. It is like this old, haunted house—every time you step inside, something new and terrifying emerges from the shadows. Germany's Sun Worship proves that even the imagery of solar devotion manages to flip the traditional themes of light and divinity into something dark, ominous and downright apocalyptic. With Emanations Of Desolation, the band doesn't just worship the sun; they sacrifice themselves in its infernal glow and let the listener watch in horror.

I've followed the band since Elder Giants, which already was testament to the talent of something exceptional lurking beneath the raw aggression. But it wasn't until Emanations Of Desolation that I truly felt their potential had erupted into full force. A key shift occurred when Lars took on double duty—handling both guitars and vocals. His work in his second engagement Ultha casts a shadow over some of the riffing here, but unlike Ultha's sprawling, atmospheric compositions, Sun Worship remains a much harsher, more immediate beast. After a two-minute introduction, the band throws subtlety into a ditch and hits the gas.

Two things define this album. First, the guitar sound, which balances on the knife's edge between being overwhelming and perfect. Multi-layered, brutal, and at times flirting with a death metal density, the riffs here could crush a cathedral and still have energy left for an encore. Lars' vocal approach is perfectly complementing the guitar work. This isn't your standard black metal shriek; it's deeper, meaner, and full of menace, like something you'd rather expect from a death metal frontman, who he is not.

Of course, perfection is a myth—something even black metal must accept, and this brings me to the second defining factor. Here, imperfection takes the form of "Pilgrimage", another five-minute ambient interlude that does little except test my patience and interrupt the album's otherwise relentless pacing and coherence. Whether this was an artistic decision or just a well-timed opportunity to refill the beer fridge, I can't say, but I would have happily taken another punishing track instead.

The album's first true standout is "Void Conqueror", A title that sounds like it should belong to a supervillain or a particularly evil vacuum cleaner, but no—it's an unrelenting blistering barrage of nearly down-tuned guitars, fast pounding drums and a vocalist who reminds you that the only sun being worshipped here is pitch black. The sheer density of sound is suffocating, and only the brief, ghostly clean vocals offer an illusion of humanity before you're dragged back into the inferno. One feat becomes crystal clear in these first 6 ½ minutes: Sun Worship found their signature sound and manages to keep the intensity high even when they slow down for no specific reason.

Then comes "Torch Reversed", which finally answers the question: what happens when you hold a torch upside down? The answer is: you burn yourself and become addicted to the pain. Clocking in at nine minutes, this track delivers a masterclass in dynamic brutality and crushing ferocity, effortlessly shifting between chaos and controlled slowdowns. The clean vocals play a more prominent role here without giving reason to believe, that the band suddenly wimped out. Around the 5:30 mark, the emotional climax hits with the weight of a collapsing sun. This is a high point of sheer emotional devastation. If you're not fully immersed by then, you might already be dead inside.

Despite having only two members (and zero bass guitar), Sun Worship conjures a maelstrom of monolithic sound that feels more like a demonic orchestra than a duo. "Soul Harvester" begins with a slow, foreboding crawl, Lars' vocals cutting through the ceaseless double bass like a scythe and sounding like a curse being etched into stone. The guitars build relentlessly, battling the drums in a layered frenzy that somehow feels both oppressive and majestic at once.

This feeling of epic grandeur continues into the closer "Without End", which is ironically named, because its biggest flaw is that it ends. This 12-minute tour de force is the album's final crowning achievement, an unholy fusion of every trick Sun Worship has deployed so far. It's everything Sun Worship excels at: ominous clean vocals, creeping buildups, then an explosion into pure, blistering madness. The hypnotic riffing towards to end ensures that before you even realize it, an hour of sonic devastation has passed—and you're left staring into the ashes as the album abruptly leaves you abandoned in silence.

The perfect production is like a symphony of scorched earth with just the right amount of filth. It's one of the album's greatest strengths. It's raw without being muddy, overwhelming without being unlistenable. There's no polish, no overproduction—just a merciless wall of sound that grinds you into dust and makes you say "thank you" for the experience.

Sun Worship may have started as an underground gem, but Emanations Of Desolation proves they deserve far more recognition. This is an album that doesn't just deliver black metal—it engulfs you in it.

Rating: 9 out of 10, because some burns are worth it.