Debut LP The Canvas Sea contains seven slabs of cathartic hellfire split by moments of fragile ambience and crushing metallic dirge. Resonating guitar melodies sink into tar black drone. Not only is the music heavy, but the emotional weight is too. Vocalist Scott Curtis dug deep to write lyrics that would match the bleak nature of the music.
“The guys encouraged me to use it as a personal outlet and get whatever off my chest that I needed to,” he says. “The record is vaguely about feeling discomfort, anxiety, and stress within your surroundings. There are not any specific stories that I can tell you but there’s definitely some personal stuff on there. Corinthians, in particular, is about mental health. It’s been my diary for the last few years.”
Recorded at The Black Lodge in Brunswick and independently released in July, The Canvas Sea is the follow-up to the band’s 2015 two-track EP, LOSS. While the EP was a solid starting point, the LP brings SUNDR’s collective vision into sharper focus. It’s the product of letting things collate naturally while jamming, with whispers gently building into towers of sound.
“I feel like a lot of the songs mimic an anxiety attack,” Curtis says. “They’ve got this massive build up that creeps up on you and then explodes. I tried to write in line with that.”
As the album came together, Curtis found himself using biblical references to visualise his lyrics. This reoccurring theme is represented in the album art, which features bodies swarming beneath a serpent wrapped around a cross.
“It’s quite anti-religion but I didn’t want it to be an obnoxious death metal album, like fuck religion,” Curtis says. “But it’s more about questioning it and comparing it to modern society. If you read into Guilty Gods and I Still See Plagues [you’ll see] it’s an artistic way to express what I wanted to say and it’s a theme I stuck with for the record.”
Before SUNDR was formed, guitarist Troy Power, bassist Adam Turcato, and Curtis played in a hardcore band called Hope In Hell. While they released an EP and played local shows, things fell apart because they couldn’t hold down a drummer.
“We struggled for so long to keep it afloat but it didn’t work,” Curtis says. “We came to a halt and said, “Alright we’ll take it as a chance to clean the slate and write some new music and fast track to where we want to be as a band.”
SUNDR formed when a mutual friend introduced drummer Dan Neumann, whose drumming style and influences locked in with Troy and Adam’s doom and stoner grooves. A handful of existing songs were scrapped and the band started writing together from scratch, slowing things down and allowing for brooding atmospheres to dictate the direction of songs. Curtis, used to the frenetic pace of hardcore, suddenly found his lyrics in the spotlight.
“A lot of the time it’s just my voice and Troy’s guitar, so that was pretty daunting, going from really fast hardcore music where you’re just spitting words out and you’ve got the tempo to hide behind, which I found a bit more forgiving. But with SUNDR it’s like being naked – my vocals are exposed.”
The band’s tour in support of The Canvas Sea includes seven shows in Japan, before they arrive home for shows in Hobart, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Melbourne. While Curtis says he’s proud of everything the band has achieved, he’s particularly humbled by the support they’ve received both here and abroad.
“I keep seeing the album pop up on blogs overseas, which is really cool. There’s a pirated version of it to download, which is cool. If people are hearing it around the world that way, then download that shit.
“The feedback we’re getting from the record, it’s not massive, but the feedback we get is people are really getting the emotional side of the record and connecting with it, which is amazing for us. That’s really the goal. People seem to be really understanding it in that respect.”
