Evansville, Indiana's Gorgantherron make their influences quite prominent on their first full-length studio album. Kyuss and Sleep are the strongest presences as the driving riffs on songs like the opening title track recall Josh Homme's patterns while the dark tone and monolithic heaviness on channel Matt Pike's early dirges. Elsewhere, the serpentine guitar lines on "Superluminal" and "Bookbinder" reach for the grimiest Pentagram tunes and one can spot a cute wink at "Black Sabbath" at the end of "The Stone."
Thankfully not coasting by on the inherent listenability of most stoner doom, these songs have pretty strong riffs and the band members exert a lot of energy. The structures stay pretty adventurous and the guitars don't always keep the spotlight. The bass is about as powerful and the gruff vocals never remove the listener from the often catchy choruses at work.
If there's any flaw with Second Sun, it's that some songs do sound similar to one another. There's a decent amount of variety but it feels as though songs of similar tempos were grouped together. It's especially apparent towards the end as "Paranoia" and "Entropy" offer the same swing rhythm as "The Stone." Fortunately, the songs are well executed and the order can always be remedied with a good shuffle.
Those who found Gorgantherron with their 2012 EP will find this to be a strong expansion of their sci-fi stoner sound. New listeners will find an excellent doom album that should work well with just about any taste. It isn't the most unique album in the scene but the enjoyable riffs make such pretentiousness unnecessary.
Highlights:
"Second Sun"
"Bookbinder"
"Seventh Planet"
"The Stone"
"Paranoia"
