Beyond The Sun is the result of Calgary three piece Woodhawk. Proving to be so much more than the sum of their numbers, Beyond The Sun is their debut full length release and despite their short time together, they have produced something real special that makes no mistake in putting them firmly on the map. A crisp, clean and nigh on perfect sounding release, it has all the hallmarks of a big budget band instead of the small, sell release that it is.
Opening with the title track ‘Beyond The Sun‘ you are immediately injected into an expansive, open and hypnotic track, a post-rock feel and a great mood setter for the rest of the album that only seems to out perform itself as each song goes by. ‘The High Priest’ takes the more psychedelic stoner route, monster riffs and a sound that makes these the perfect band for fans of Priestess. Hitting in as the longest of the album comes ‘Living in the Sand‘, softening the blows slightly but hitting the right spots, it knows when to throw the killer punches and doesn’t disappoint. Really taking the foot off the pedal comes the ‘Magnetic North‘, with an overload of riff magic coming at you straight after in ‘Lawless’.
With songs taking different stories and subjects in their lyrical form, there can be no mistake as to the inspiration behind ‘A New Hope’, without any feel of being cheesy like most songs referencing star wars can feel, it genuinely makes for one hell of a song and stands out as one of those instant unforgettable tracks of the album. ‘Foresee The Future’ comes in as the shortest track of the album, taking an instrumental post-rock feel, emotive, gentle and a journey in itself that acts as the perfect bridge to the closer ‘Chrononaut’, with some great passages with riff after riff of awesomeness.
As self released debut albums go, you can’t really top this, I cannot think of anything close to as good, I struggle to think of many debut albums in the past decade even with a budget of a label behind them sounded as good a sound as Woodhawk. If you are a fan of bands like Priestess, Red Fang, Truck fighters and so on, then these guys genuinely are a must for you to check out.
