As you surely know, we here at The Metalist love any excuse to create just that, a list! Having celebrated to our hearts content with the green eyes of St Patrick’s Day earlier this week. We’ve decided that seeing as the next eclipse will happen in 2026 as far as we know. So to make this occasion all the more metal we thought up five songs that would be the perfect soundtrack to an eternal eclipse…
Meshuggah – Behind The Sun :
It had to be Meshuggah really, the Swedish brand of alien like metal. Released from their 2012 monstrous Koloss the band slowed things down after the decidedly vicious Obzen. Enveloping themselves in a more lumbering sombre feeling, with “Behind The Sun” being a brilliant track, showcasing the bands seamless evolution from just the one song. Beginning with the other worldly chords, we’re later thrown full throttle into the maelstrom that is conducted by these most gifted of musicians. Creating that sense of questioning, what exactly might be behind the sun?
Lamb Of God – Blacken The Cursed Sun :
Nine years ago, Lamb Of God released Sacrament. The album that catapulted the band to potential legendary status, with the head banging single “Redneck” which single handedly kept Roadrunner in business for quite a while. Though one of the first ever songs for myself to hear was indeed “Blacken The Cursed Sun“. Once again made up of all the elements that make Lamb Of God such a revolutionary metal band. From the apocalyptic lead lines to the boot scraping riffs at the songs crescendo. It’s hard to imagine that Sacrament will next year be ten years old…
Behemoth – O Father, O Satan, O Sun :
Though this song may not specifically have anything straightforward to do with the sun. The ideology behind the track is more to the fact that for Nergal, Satan, is the creator of all things. His father, his sun so to speak, released from their absolutely flawless album The Satanist last year. The sheer grandiose feel of the albums set piece is truly haunting. Not to mention even more so in the ominous live setting, where the band take to the stage and play with masks on… If the world was set to be in eternal darkness then this would be the final rallying call of light. Truly magnificent.
Atheist – Second To Sun :
Personally one of my favourite bands are Florida’s Atheist. Often forgotten about in the death metal spectrum the band are entirely unique. From their jazz oriented beginnings on Unquestionable Presence. The band returned in 2010 with their latest album Jupiter, bringing the Atheist monicker into modern day. Bringing with them their unique sound, dissonant lead sections, off key song writing and a new modern sound. It’s a great album that, I find hard to believe was released five years ago. Second to NONE.
Tesseract – Sunrise :
With the return this year of the progressive metal monsters, not only announcing that there will be a new album in the pipeline for September this year but releasing details surrounding their brand new live DVD Odyssey. Welcoming back previous singer Daniel Tompkins with open arms that band, thought that to immortalise his return they would release the live performance of them in London’s Scala. After the departure of O’Hara, Tompkins returns and it will be interesting to see what exactly the new breed of Tesseract will sound like. However if ever there was a song to exhibit the majesty of a solar eclipse, this would definitely be one of them.
Experts say that it is a very bad idea to look at the eclipse directly and you should only look at the sun directly with the right protective gear. If you cut a small hole in a piece of paper, shine the paper up to the sun with your back to the sun and hold the other piece in front of you, you should be able to see a small eclipse on the paper.
Or you could just rock out to these five fantastic jams…
