Ahimsa Sunrise

A beaten and bludgeoned white shoebox arrived at my doorstep almost three weeks ago with a return address of Dubois, Penn.
The problem? I don't know anyone from PA and little flakes of white "i don't know what" started to gently spill out of a hole in the box.

Anthrax? Dandruff? I thought. But as soon as I got my wits about me and opened the box, there, my friends, was Ahimsa Sunrise.

Ah!

Their debut CD is just as cryptic and inexplicable as receiving a package from a land unknown.

But once I let the album grow on me (figuratively speaking), I couldn't part with their odd amalgamation of hardcore, emo and late At the Drive-In like guitars.

One reason this release is so special is the range and degrees of experimentation the guys are willing to do as peers of theirs stick to the hardcore formula for a whole album.



review written by: wilsonrobot

- Fishcomcollective.net

As the band itself proclaims, you can’t really just check out a single track of Ahimsa Sunrise’s music and get a full picture of what the band’s sound is. For example, you have to listen 3 songs into the CD before you really begin to appreciate the full range of the AS’ sound. The opening track is a langorous instrumental that gives no hint of where the music will ultimately go. Then the CD flows into a prog/emo tune that is strongly reminiscent of the later work of Coheed and Cambria. It’s emotive, exploratory and poignant. But then you move on to the next track and you are suddenly confronted by a melodic but abrasive bash of screaming emocore/metalcore. At that point, you’re starting to get a grasp of the band’s scope; they pride themselves on not being readily categorizable based on one song and I think they mostly succees. While the band generally hangs within the broad spectrum embraced by the emo umbrella, the listener is given everything from near-ambient instrumental passages all the way up to screaming moshworthy lashings. A strong band.


review written by: Upchuck Undergrind

- Fishcom

One part hardcore, one part melodic art-rock, Ahimsa Sunrise injects the latter genre with an adrenaline rush that may invigorate the 90 Hour Sleep Scene to life. I suppose it was an inevitability that someone would come along, take the lofty, atmospheric California sound and subject it to a brutal punishment. Surprisingly, it is an East Coast band that accomplishes this, as the West Coasters are still exploring the ins and outs of their craft. Pennsylvania natives Ahimsa Sunrise show that life closer to the Atlantic is not full of smiles and sunshine. With New York and New Jersey right next door, it’s hard to ignore the hardcore influence. So, instead, they embrace it.



The Viceory and the Monarch is an extremely fulfilling album, but somewhat of a tough listen. It requires a listener well immersed in the modern rock scene who also has the dual tolerance of the harder rock and the melodic rock. I don’t know too many people who can leave all their biases at the door and sit down and judge an album without any preconceived notion of what they like and dislike, but if one were to do so, they would surely find Ahimsa Sunrise appealing. Sporting a never-ending flurry of guitar licks, be it soft and soothing or jagged and devastating, backed with a dual vocal presence, Ahimsa Sunrise has much working in their favor.



The album starts off with the instrumental track “In Loving Memory”, that fully exposes the artistic side of the band from the start. Ahimsa Sunrise isn’t ashamed of this side of the band, and it constantly calls back to this influence while continually applying a rougher sound to it. Be it the in your face punch of "Athena’s Song" or the more melodic styling of "Most Evil Lover", the band constantly changes faces in order to defy convention. Even escaping the hardcore label at times with the screamo based "100 Years War" or the metalcore influenced "Lockjaw", the band lifts the physical forms of its art out of the music and instead focuses on the essence of their craft. This is not an approach generally taken by such heavy hitting bands, and perhaps that it why it comes off as such a unique experience.



Musically there may be a connection with Circa Survive, but in all fairness, the two bands don’t come close to playing on the same level. Circa Survive doesn’t have the balls to challenge their scene to the extent that The Viceroy and the Monarch does. This is certainly one of the more surprising releases of 2005, and for those with a tough stomach and an open mind, Ahimsa Sunrise may be the best band you’ve never heard.



--Jordan Volz

- decoymusi.com