new music: sun brother’s ‘singular ep’ turns up the fury on their indie pop #soundcheck

The last time we checked in on Sun Brother, they were a trio of fine indie pop purveyors with a knack for infectious melodies and alt-funk grooves. Well, two years is an eternity in music (note that both Nirvana and Hendrix’s mainstream careers lasted barely more than two years. You can accomplish a lot in the two years most of us have spent finally getting around to framing that poster…). Now a little older, a little wiser, and a lot more pissed off, the South Carolina trio is notably heavier, having added death growls and breakdowns to their bag of tricks on the new Singular EP.

By Nathan Leigh, AFROPUNK Contributor

The first notes uttered by frontman Zebraylon Deonte’ Woodruff is a guttural growl. This isn’t the poppy band we used to know. Except they sort of still are. Opening growl aside, his melodies remain anthemic as ever, with the band adding Rufio-esque technical complexity to the hook of opening track “Florence.” Meanwhile “June 12th” could pass for Sun Brother of old with it’s indelible “wa-i-a-i-a-i-o I’m a lone wolf looking for trouble” chorus. On “Singular,” the band embraces that fine line between alt-metal and post-hardcore that bands like Quicksand once tread so fantastically. Though plagued by inconsistent production, the Singular EP is a promising though brief look at Sun Brother’s new direction.