Hail The Sun – cut. turn. fade. back.
Release Date: 24th October 2025
Label: Equal Vision
Order/Stream
Genre: Post-Hardcore
FFO: Chiodos, The Fall of Troy, Satyr.
Review By: Jeff Finch
Hail the Sun is an interesting band for me. For years, I was looking for a replacement for the Fall of Troy because one can only listen to the same three albums so many times (thank you for releasing two additional ones), so once I heard their last one Divine Inner Tension, it was game over. Now owning their discography, this new album drops on the 24th of October and, as anticipated, it simply reaffirms my love for the band.
From the get-go on this album, the band just does not hesitate to remind us who they are and why they’re a big name in the post-hardcore scene. Drummer/vocalist Donovan Melro is an absolute monster, the fills and the pace that he keeps up, the punishing soundscapes, all while singing, yelling AND screaming, is as impressive a case of musicianship as there is on the planet. He can croon, as on Insensitive Tempo, yell like he’s in a punk band (playing off the crooning) on Consumed with You, or scream as if he’s ablaze, as on Blight. Each layer of his vocal prowess is something to behold, taking a backseat only to his drumming.
Now, back to the beginning, what made me love this band was the chaos that ensues within their songs, ala the Fall of Troy. Though the band may be labeled as post-hardcore, some of these beats could easily exist on a mathcore album: start stops, blistering paces slowed down to nothing then sped back up, a convulsive rhythm, the song’s heartbeat skipping and then sprinting, a whiplash beat that yanks listeners from furious bursts to breathless lulls, the breakdown in opener The Drooling Class a perfect example. A jumpy opener that feels like a teeth-clenched caffeine high, a person so uncomfortable in their own body they’re pulsating: nervous, dance-like drum chatter and guitar riffs populate the lion’s share of the song, while the breakdown arrives like a sudden gust. The guitars drop into a tense chug, drums shift into a syncopated half-beat, and then everything collapses into a cavernous pause before the riff roars back with a new level of ferocity. It feels both surgical and brutal: the riffing is razor-sharp, Melero’s voice hangs just on the edge of vehemence, and the rhythm’s stop-start motion underscores the song’s energy. The effect is jarring; you’re momentarily disoriented, then slammed back into the groove, which makes the surge that follows all the more cathartic.
What struck most about this record is that it didn’t feel like a new record. Divine Inner Tension came out two years ago and got repeated plays from me, along with some friends who never heard the band. It’s as if there was no break at all, Divine Inner Tension part two, as it were, with even more tension. This description should not be taken as a negative, either; rather, it should be noted that the incredible performances are what make this album so familiar. When the band wants to get heavy, they get heavy; downtuned chugs, relentless riffs, blistering drums, and in those cases, vicious shrieks from Donovan. When they wanna get slow, they can often do so right in the same song, as exemplified by a track such as Consumed By You.
As for pacing on the album, that’s never been a problem for this band, and it continues to be not a problem. Each song is peppered with different variations of the Hail the Sun sound, but each also contains its own personality. The tempo shifts, the pace changes, the time signature shifts, all of that is expected, but what is not expected is how they’re gonna pull it off, this song versus the last song. It may sound like I’m saying the band sounds samey, but it’s not meant that way. Rather, the band has mastered the art of spastic, high energy post-hardcore that borders on mathcore, and I’m here for all of it.
(5 / 5)
