SUMAC 'Love In Shadow'

Love is what makes us human. It guides our decisions, shapes our worldview, and defines our experiences. Its absence equates to tragedy while its presence gives our lives meaning. Those less-traversed territories of humankind’s connective bond became the central theme of SUMAC’s third full-length album, 'Love In Shadow', though their explorations of that motif are a far cry from traditional manifestations of love in the realm of art. Across four protracted songs, guitarist and vocalist Aaron Turner (Old Man Gloom, Mamiffer, ISIS) and his cohorts — Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists, Erosion) on drums and Brian Cook (Russian Circles) on bass — interlace and mangle sounds from their instruments in a sonic homage to both the innate warmth of human magnetism and the cold realities of corrupted love—jealousy, obsession, perversion, addiction. Listeners who followed the Northwest trio down the tangled briar of mathematical riffs and hypnotic battery on 'The Deal' or through the unfettered eruptions and methodical dissonance of 'What One Becomes' are aware that SUMAC eschews the conventional balladry typically associated with odes to our spiritual connectedness. Saccharine sweetness or fatalistic tales of unrequited affection are nowhere to be found on 'Love In Shadow'. Over the album’s hour-plus length, the band employs minimal tools to achieve a maximum overview of visceral passions. Yet while popular music puts an emphasis on conveying moods through well-tread tropes, cultural signifiers, and deeply ingrained associations between tempo, texture, melody and their respective emotional resonance, SUMAC approaches their music with the tactile immediacy of abstract expressionists. The beauty is not in the content but in the form.