Dead Sun Rise

“Dead Sun Rise” has a little bit of everything, making it a very well put together release. With 8 long tracks taking up almost an hour, there’s bits of black metal and thrash elements. At times the songs are raw, but at other times they are not. Synths are used from time to time but never at a point where you would want more or less. The atmosphere this album creates consists: darkness, cold, and isolation.

The first track on this album is the longest. Very calm introduction and the song just builds up for a few minutes. “Dead Sun Rise” is a fairly long song, but it never really gets tedious and with 90 seconds left, the song begins to fade away with silence.

“Where No Beauty Dwells” is the next (and shortest) song and this is where you would start to notice the “thrashy” part. There’s a cool guitar solo at 1:15 and things pick up a bit at 2:35. Not really too much to say, but this is one of the catchier raw songs on the album.


“Imprisoned by Fear” actually lacks a lot of variety. The riffs are nice and thrashy, especially after 4 minutes, but if you don’t like them, then chances are you probably won’t like this song. A hit or miss song.

The next song is a long instrumental that’s very calm and atmospheric. No guitars or anything; just synths, keyboard, and percussion. It’s songs like these that make albums much better.

Track 5, called “Perish in Blood” uses a lot of keyboards in the beginning. It’s catchy in a different way than tracks 2,3,and 7. At 1:20 the vocals just sound so cool. There’s a guitar solo at 5:51 but other than that, this is probably one of the best songs on the CD. No instrument is overused at all.

“The Darkly Shining Moon” is probably the slowest song but still very atmospheric. You can sense the idea of being cold in a dark place. Great use of keyboards.

“Pass in Silence” is one of the faster songs. In fact, it’s very similar to track 2 and I tend to get them confused all the time. Not much else to say here, except that you’ll get most of this song in your head after you hear it.

The last track might be one of the weaker songs on the album, but that’s really not saying much. You would need to listen to this song a few times to hear every part of it. “As Darkness Prevails”’s best quality is the way it just ends. Putting any other song as the last track of the album would just screw everything up.

“Dead Sun Rise” is definitely worth a listen. The production makes it sound like an early 90’s black metal release, though it is fairly easy on the ears. Also, it seems they increased the bass on this album which is why you need to listen very well.

“Dead Sun Rise” might not be the best album you will ever hear, but Eldur is very talented and it definitely shows here. Buy this one, give it a few listens, and you won’t be disappointed.

Curse is an old school black metal act from iceland, risen from the ashes of Thule. It's a side project by Eldur of Potentiam, but the music is quite different here.
Dead Sun Rise is not amazing and it won't be the starter of a revolution in black metal sound, but that's not what it's supposed to be.
It's an honest and well done attempt to recreate the feeling of the black flame, as it was some years ago: raw, grim, black and with morbid melodies! That is also the better aspect of this record: almost every riff is inspired and will please your black ears!

This first release contains 8 tracks, all well written, well played and of almost the same quality. mid tempo based songs with good riffs, and more than decent harsh vocals on there. Nothing more than the pure essence of black metal.

Only the last two songs (my favourites) are a bit more sophisticated and have a slightly different feeling...a bit more fierce and pagan, maybe.

There are few words to describe this record, maybe two can be enough: black metal.
If you are looking for something similar to dark throne or carpathian forest, well done and with a decent production, give it a chance: you probably won't be disappointed.
Otherwise stay away from it as long as it has nothing more to offer.