UNTRUE
3RD ALBUM BY BLACK SITES
All music written and arranged by
Sugar/Bruchert/Naples
Lyrics by M. Sugar
Published by Fisto’s Forest Music, ASCAP
Produced by Mark Sugar
Mixed by Sanford Parker
Recorded by Quentin Poynter at qmp audio
and Sanford Parker at Hypercube
Additional recording at Mace Street Studios, Chicago
and at home
Mastered by Brad Boatright, Audiosiege
Cover artwork by Alexandre Goulet
Art direction and layout: Mark Sugar
RELEASED ON OCT 8TH, 2021
WHAT THIS ALBUM DOES WELL: Without a shadow of a doubt, this is the best album mix I have heard so far in 2021. Sanford Parker's mix is so well designed but it speaks to a higher reasoning as to why this trio has renewed my faith in metal. The apt comparisons will be abound with these guys' contemporaries Mastodon and Volbeat but make no mistake Black Sites has its foot right on the neck of heavy metal and let's hope they don't let go for sometime. The musicianship is otherworldly, the album is pristine with its melodic tones but even more impressive with its harmonies and transitions into the bridges and choruses. Its everything a heavy metal fan is itching for. While the comparison is there to the bands I mentioned above, Black Sites turns it up a notch. "Call It By Its Name" may be the best song I have heard all year, not just in metal but of all the music I listen too. The Old School transition from the opening track "Sword of Orion" into "...Name" had me fist pumping and smiling. The idea that this album gets harder as it goes but never loses its sense of balance is why this mix is special. "The Worst of Us" is nice up tempo Hard Rock song that reminds us that this band is not a one trick pony. Even more reinforced with "Nocturne/Everything Went Black" an opening ballad that just rips right into headbanging magic. While its hard pressed to proclaim any anthems on this album that hardly matters because a lot of these songs you get into without any need for tropes. All of the songs are on my repeat playlists now, and while I do have favorites, this might be one of the few albums where in I could enjoy all the songs on it and not feel the need to skip around. This band really knows who they are and what they are about and it is so refreshing and great to listen too.
WHY YOU SHOULD CHAMPION THIS ALBUM: Look if you are metal fan and you miss the glory days or are tired of watching nostalgia act after nostalgia act just be half of what they used to be, Black Sites may become your band pretty quickly. They have all the makings of being that band that you love in the veins of their contemporary comparisons and yet their unique way of approaching the familiar and being a wide array of different types of metal and hard rock has this rocker excited for what's to come from the trio. I am betting you will feel the same too.
YOU SHOULD LIKE THIS BAND IF YOU LIKE: Mastodon, Volbeat, Armored Saint, Trivium, and Shadows Fall
YOU CAN GET THIS ALBUM HERE
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