Grant The Sun – Biomes
Release Date: 16th October 2026
Label: Mas-Kina Recordings
Order/Stream
Genre: Mathy Progressive Metal
FFO: Meshuggah, Gojira, Animals As Leaders.
Review By: Ben Harris-Hayes
Right, let’s start at the end and say I liked this record!
“But, Ben…Why are you doing this backwards?” (I hear none of you ask.)
No rhyme or reason, but I wanted to ensure you understood that this record is very much worth checking out if you’re a fan of disjointed rhythmical staccato riffage, aggressive vocals and interspersed melodic phrases nicely wrapped up in an authentic, not-overproduced production…which I very much am!
Shout out the drummer, who needs a payrise! It oozes technical proficiency and has all the trademarks of a band comfortable in its own sound, albeit if that sound is an amalgamation of its influences that are very prevalent.
I’ve had this record on repeat for a couple of weeks, just soaking it all in, and the highlights still shone for me after a fortnight…yet, the not-so-gleaming bits remained a little grey for me on a few tracks. This is the curse and blessing of ‘Biomes’, the third album from Norwegian trio, Grant The Sun. It’s a majestic progressive bird flying across scatter-gun riffage, locked-in drums and a variety of vocals that suit the tracks, but there were some songs that didn’t quite grab me as much as I wanted…but hey, the highlights are high.
Tracks like ‘A Chemical Floor’ with its unrelenting pounding of your ear drums, immediately grabbed me and remained my favourite track during my listening.
‘Jaguar’, with (I believe) a delicious slide guitar melody, was simply *chefs kiss* and something I keep humming to myself, which, to me, is the sign of great songwriting.
‘Heliconia’, has a slower vibe that nicely breaks up the pacier tracks and crawls across the jungle canopy searching for your ears.
The final track, ‘Cinder’ has a fantastic vocal chorus and rounds out an impressive record.
The addition of vocals on this record, after 2 albums of (almost) fully instrumental metal, was a nice (bold?) move forward for the band, with Gojira-esque roars layering the music, interspersed with the occasional clean vocals.
As I said at the beginning, I did enjoy this record and have had it on repeat since receiving it to review, and I would recommend it to listeners who are seeking some Meshuggah-esque/Animals As Leaders grooves. It’s genuinely hard not to compare bands who use this staccato style of riffage to the mighty Swedes, such is the influence that Meshuggah have had and continue to have on modern metal…but, don’t let that take anything away from Grant The Sun’s third album and their own path…because it’s VERY much worth your time.
All in all, a hefty 4 out of 5 from this scribe for ‘Biomes’. Get it in your ears.
(4 / 5)
