Review: SUNCROWN “You Are Not Alone” 2014

Review By David Pearce

Artist – SUNCROWN
Album – You Are Not Alone
Label – Label: None, EMR Records and Management
Year – 2014

1. The Beginning Is Near
2. Who Are You
3. You Are Not Alone
4. Grandfathers Song
5. Primordial Call (Infernorama Cover)
6. Open The Winds
7. Victory Inside You (Instrumental)
8. Just Like You
9. Sometimes In Life
10. Push
11. Gates Of Babylon (Rainbow Cover)

SUNCROWN is an international symphonic/epic metal band formed in 2011 by songwriter and keyboardist Oleg Biblyi (Ukraine) and vocalist Darren Crisp (USA). Later to join the band were guitarist Gustavo Bonfá (Brazil) and bassist Ederson Prado (Brazil). In December of 2010 female singer Juliana Furlani (Brazil) and drummer Tim Zuidberg (Netherlands) joined the band. In July 2011 SUNCROWN released their first video clip “Follow Your Dream”. In February 2012 the group recorded video clip “Believe” with 2 new members: guitarist Kevin Ellerby (USA) and flute player Uğur Kerem Cemiloğlu (Turkey). In summer 2013 the band released new video from the upcoming album “You Are Not Alone.” The video is for the track “The Beginning Is Near” with new solo and rhythm guitarist Sindre Flo Myskja. On 10th January 2014 the band released their second album “You Are Not Alone”.

The opening track is “The Beginning Is Near” a classic style song to start the album, full of power and passion – the vocals are superb and it instantly gets my head nodding. The guitar work and the solos are a joy to hear and the keyboards give it another edge, brilliant. The second and third songs are “Who Are You” and “You Are Not Alone”- the vocals on these songs are just utterly fantastic, just what you would expect from a symphonic/metal band of this class. “You Are Not Alone” is a slower song than the previous ones, but still perfectly done. It does speed up a little bit nearer the end with some top quality solos and keyboarding.

The fourth song is “Grandfathers Song.” It has an old man and a woman talking at the start, then the singing begins with Juliana and her amazing operatic vocals. Darren then comes in, a good contrast to Juliana, with their different styles of vocal work. The actual song has its own story to tell and the music tells it perfectly all the way through. The fifth song is a cover of an Infernorama song; “Primordial Call.” I personally have not heard this song before, but how SUNCROWN have covered it sounds very well done – the vocals complement the guitar and keyboarding right throughout the song.

The sixth and seventh songs are “Open The Winds” and “Victory Inside You (Instrumental.)” These songs are fantastic, full of top quality musicianship throughout and to throw in an instrumental halfway through the album was awesome. I loved it and it broke up the album perfectly. The eighth song is “Just Like You” and the slowest on the album but it fits so well, whilst listening to this it relaxes me, prefect after a hard day’s work. The ninth and tenth songs are “Sometimes In Life” and “Push”- these songs go back to the powerful symphonic metal that this album has been built upon. They are seamless in the way that they have been both delivered with precise vocals, whether from Juliana or Darren and the guitar work and keyboards again are phenomenal. The last song on the album is another cover, ‘Gates Of Babylon’ by the legendary RAINBOW. This is an unbelievable version, probably one of the best I have heard in a long while. It has been perfectly done and Darren’s vocals are just made for this song. The guitar work is second to none, what more can I say about it – an unbelievably brilliant what away to finish the album.

Overall

This is just a fantastic album throughout, from the beginning though to the final spectacular ending of the cover of RAINBOW’s “Gates Of Babylon”. This is my favourite album I have heard this year so far, I am a sucker for symphonic epic metal. I would love to see SUNCROWN at one of the major festivals here in the UK, they would go down a storm with their style of music.

Rating 10/10

Members:
Darren Crisp – Vocals
Oleg Biblyi – Keyboards
Juliana Furlani – Vocals
Sindre Flo Myskja – Solo and Rhythm Guitar
Kevin Ellerby – Guitar
Tim Zuidberg – Drums
Ederson Prado – Bass guitar
Ugur Kerem Cemiloglu – Flute