There is just no stopping Chris "The Professor" Black. With High Spirits and Dawnbringer he has created some of the best and most unconventional heavy metal music around today. And don't forget Aktor. What about Pharaoh, Superchrist and Nachmystium? Well, forget about all those. It's solo album time. Not one, not two but three. All issued simultaneously (on vinyl) via High Roller Records. Along with "LVPVS" and "I Am the Rock", "Sunrise" is the third of Professor Black's set of solo albums. A quick glance at the cover artwork might lead you to the conclusion that "Sunrise" sounds like Bathory's "Hammerheart" album. Which is at least partly true as Chris Black explains: " Actually, I wished the album to be more like "Hammerheart", but, I had to let the songs move in their own way." There is no coherent lyrical concept behind "Sunrise": "Nothing exact. I guess some but not all songs share the theme of denial. And the album title and cover are going along with that." Would a song like "Die By the Sun" not have fit in with High Spirits under any circumstances? And if so, why not? Chris Black: "Well, it is easy to overlook the more melancholy elements of High Spirits. But no, there are musical characteristics as well as lyrical ones that would keep these songs out of consideration for High Spirits." "Gathering Stone" on the other hand, is very proto-metal, a bit like Warhorse meeting Dust meeting Ashbury ... cool song! "Yes, thanks," smiles "The Professor". "I think it could be a cool opener in a certain type of live show. It has a good build-up. That is a song about solitude." All songs on "Sunrise" seem to be in almost the same tempo, it's all more or less mid-tempo (or slower), I guess that was the plan, wasn't it? All eight songs come across like a "solid unit", a continuous "wall of sound", for lack of a better description ... Chris Black agrees: "Yeah, the guitar is played in a certain way, and so the songs have this continuity. The tempos and rhythms do have some variety, but the atmosphere remains the same for sure." Matthias Made
