Hello Metalheads! This is John back with another album review! This time I am bringing you Shape of God Though of Sun by Eigenstate Zero which was released in February 7th, 2025. My first reaction while listening to this was just “wow” that’s it, that’s the reaction!
This is a one man band from Sweden who is just writing album after album. I remember hearing his music for the first time after his 2023 release(Machinery of the Night) and feeling like my head was spinning after the first song. It certainly takes a few listens to process and get a bearing on exactly what this maniac is writing. Once I got a feeling for his style and approach I really started to not only like, but love what he is doing here.
This is his third release since July 4th, 2023 and all of his material is dense quality stuff. This album is 1 hour 13 minutes in length and only 7 tracks. It’s all progressive death metal with an almost avant-garde style of harmony and texture. There were very few moments of typical harmony that most people(myself included) are used to hearing. The vast majority is a cacophonous, strange and dissonant blend guitar lines or undertones. I think that this dissonance is created by centering around the whole tone scale and harmonies created by using that. I definitely hear it in the solos, and sometimes in the riffs themself. It’s such a refreshing take on prog metal and specifically the death metal side of the genre!
Another example of the avant-garde aspects is the singing that he does throughout the album. It’s almost Tim Burton-esque in that it has a creepy feeling that is almost uneasy and there to make the listener apprehensive. There is a point on Dark Entity Seal where his voice sounds exactly like Jack Skellington’s speaking voice in The Nightmare Before Christmas as well! His harsh vocals are reminiscent of Johnny Davy(Job for a Cowboy) and his mid and high shrieks are so raw it’s hard to put a comparison on them.
A Peculiar Void is the first track on the album, it just starts right in with a trash riff and feel. There is a somewhat normal harmony during this section. Shortly after this abrupt start to the album a keyboard/synth places by itself with this weird meandering line. After it plays the line once the guitar and singing echoes the line, there is a brief disruption to the line with a truncated chord or two. After this repeats a few times there is a brief guitar solo, a few sections later there is a somewhat chorus sounding section with dissonant harmony. After this another guitar solo before blast beats fill our ears. But the true chorus section is at the 2:57 mark. It’s a full wall of sound with an uneasy and creepy undertone. Right after this there is an abrupt shift to peaceful and melancholy with no distortion in any instruments. Shortly after the meandering line from earlier in the track comes back with a more sinister feeling to it. The true shining moment of this track is the jazz break at 4:47 in the track. It starts off with an old school jazz organ playing by itself. After it plays through the groove once the whole ensemble joins in and gives a full band death metal take on the groove. After things a repeated w few times there is a keyboard solo overtop all of that. The chorus returns with a more relaxed and less frantic feel than before. It’s almost as if the character(s) in this song are accepting of the void they are speaking of in this chorus.
The Tellurian Yoke starts off with a vibraphone lead melody to bring us into the track. After the main melody is played the whole band plays with section mimicking the vibraphone sound. Once the vocals come in the melody is still intact throughout most of the next few sections as an underlying piece of the music. There are brief section of singing that break up the main course growls. This main melody comes back a few times throughout the course of the track including at the 3:00 mark. After this is repeated the next section has arpeggiated guitar lines broken up with chords in between. Shortly after there is a synth solo that is very low in the mix. The next section of note is at 4:25 when the distortion and loud drums are all gone. There is almost a Latin feel throughout this section with some really nice and different chord changes that serve well in the texture of the section. This ends with a section of singing softly before growing quickly in volume before the harsh vocals come back in this dark and depressed sound. The next time the main melody from the beginning comes back, it’s back with the vibraphone again. This time when it’s repeated vocals and drums come in to add to the sound. When the song moves on next time it takes the melody and breaks it apart and messes with it a bunch as the passage moves along. At the 7:30 mark the bottom of the sound falls out again and its lead by jazz piano chords and off beat drums. Shortly after a bouncy guitar and singing come in to add layers. Once that is over it transitions into a thrash section with death metal undertones. The main melody comes back for the last time in the song but with dissonant and demented harmonies at the 8:39 mark! The song ends on a vamp of one of main riffs used throughout the song with vibraphone over top of the mix.
Trope Controller starts off with a thrash riff and beat that has that demented sound I’ve talked about for this whole review. There is a 30 second long instrumental section to start the song. Just over top of this introduction there is what sounds like a marimba in the mix and it stays in for the vast majority of the track. When the vocals come in it’s singing for quite a while before the harsh vocals come in. This is one track that constantly makes me say “WOW” as I’m listening because of the way every single section sounds different with little warning when it changes. Just when I think I know when the textures will change or what they will change into, I get proved wrong in a big way. At the five minute mark there is a passage that comes out of no where and is introduced by a keyboard that is reminiscent of 70’s style organ. Shortly after the entire band core joins and plays a vamp mimicking this and keyboard plays a solo over top of that.
This is one fantastic album that truly captured my attention and held on tight from start to finish. Shape or God Though of Sun is a dissonant, dense, progressive, avant garde whirlwind of death metal that I hope a lot of people hear. To me this is a ridiculous 10/10 and yet another solid album out this year already. I could go on and on about the other four tracks on this album because of how many cool and interesting details are everywhere in this album. As always don’t forget to listen to this and buy it if you truly love it like I do! Links to all of the social media site and streaming services will be provided for this one man band!
https://www.instagram.com/eigenstatezero/
https://open.spotify.com/album/72TuBzjepDLMbTdjuSx1Fi
https://www.facebook.com/share/1HYNHCaSiM/?mibextid=wwXIfr
https://music.apple.com/us/album/shape-of-god-though-of-sun/1789135160
https://eigenstatezero.bandcamp.com/album/shape-of-god-thought-of-sun