HUNDRED SUNS
Norma Jean and ETID members make a fresh racket
THE TIMING COULDN’T
be better for massive choruses in metal. Not only have the likes of Avenged Sevenfold and Five Finger Death Punch made the jump to some of our biggest venues, but some of metal’s most prestigious names from across the years, from Korn to Disturbed to Deftones to Marilyn Manson, are finally returning to arenas after years toiling at academy level. Armed with an arsenal of massive choruses and even bigger riffs, Hundred Suns dream big with their debut album The Prestaliis. Featuring the talents of Cory Brandan (Norma Jean), Ryan Ledger (Every Time I Die) and Chris LeMasters (Dead & Divine), Hundred Suns are a band quite unlike any of their individual members’ previous projects – but that doesn’t mean they don’t draw on their past experiences.
“It really helps us to keep onto the path of our singular vision,” says vocalist Cory. “I don’t know many bands that didn’t start out as teenagers. They gain popularity and end up signing contracts or whatever and end up losing any joy or artistic vision. We don’t have any of that baby shit – we’ve done this before and there’s no way we can’t use all the knowledge and experience we’ve got to make this band work.”
This prior experience has certainly served to fully flesh out their sound –
The Prestaliis is more akin to a seasoned band hitting their stride than a band taking their first steps into the world.
Funded via IndieGoGo (an impressive feat considering they only had one song to demonstrate their prowess), it’s understandable that Hundred Suns feel a great debt to their fans.
“Right now, those fans are all we have,” Cory admits. “We need to get out there because they made the record happen. Most people have to start from nothing, but we’re all pretty stoked and lucky that we don’t have to go from ground zero again.”
Determined to do things right, the band have put great thought into every part of the album – right the way down to the artwork. “It comes down to artistic vision,” Cory says. “We controlled everything for this, right down to the packaging. It has a collectible feel.
It’s exactly what we want to make, every label and band should be doing it.”
ENORMOUS IN SOUND
and confident in tone, Hundred Suns take the best parts of arena metal (crowd-baiting choruses, commanding riffs) and season it with prog-like experiments in tone that fully utilise each member’s talents. A power trio, Hundred Suns enjoy a set-up older than metal itself.
“I’ve never been in a band like this before,” Cory states. “Bigger bands can fall into the habit of relying on the other guys, but we’re tied in to each other and really dig the basics of guitar-drums-vocals.” For three men, they make a hell of a noise.