siLLy puPPy One of the few metal bands i’m aware of to emerge from the extreme frigid lands of northern Minnesota, THE FIFTH SUN emerged from the small city of Bemidji in 1991 with the band name Consumed with the three primary members of Bryan Horn (vocals, guitar), Shawn Mattila (guitar) and John Eggers (drums). Although it would take 10 long years to get to this debut album THE MOMENT OF TRUTH, the band moved to Portland, Oregon in order to find exposure to a much more appreciative audience but nothing came of that journey and the band ended up back in Minnesota where after two albums it would disappear completely into the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

In many ways, THE FIFTH SUN is the USA’s answer to Amon Amarth with chugging beastly guitar riffs coalescing with the bass, drums and guttural growls into something rather melodic. AND there’s a reason that Minnesota’s pro American football team is called the Vikings! That’s because the weather and European immigrants from Scandinavia seemed to flock here way back when. THE MOMENT OF TRUTH features nine tracks that clock in over 38 minutes and feature a competent display of melodic death metal with a few technical touches just to give it some spice. Stylistically the album is fairly uniform in presentation without really deviating from the regularly scheduled program but overall not bad in doing so.

This is a fast paced album with rampaging riffs at fast tempos. The guitar tones are heavily distorted and the death metal presented is out of the old school death camps only more fine-tuned to craft an overarching melodic presentation. Influences as cited by vocalist / guitarist Brian Horn include Death, Edge of Sanity, Testament, Entombed, Obituary, Slayer and Sepultura but as already stated, THE FIFTH SUN evokes more of a Swedish melo-death vibe than anything from Tampa or Brazil. The album is consistent in its pummeling attacks and crafts a satisfying rampaging metal stampede with just enough melodic touches to keep the hooks alive. The technical wizardry is actually quite subtle as it mostly revolves around complex key changes, riffs out of place and incessant tempos but nothing crazy in the vein of Death.

While many may consider THE FIFTH SUN very derivative in many ways, the album is actually excellently performed if not in any way original. The musicians deliver a tight-knit set of tracks that doesn’t deviate for a moment throughout the album’s playing time. The guttural growls are wickedly evil sounding and keep this album from sounding too polished and same for the production. A few non-death metal moments emerge to offer some contrast but for the most part it’s a death chug-fest with a few melodic guitar sweeps along the way. For a melo-death album this one is actually quite well executed although THE MOMENT OF TRUTH won’t score high for any groundbreaking moments. Juggling the balance between melo-death and tech death may sound a hard nut to crack, THE FIFTH SUN does a really great job on this even if the overall impression may not blow you away.