From the opening monologue’s transition into first track proper ‘The New Sun’, it’s immediately transparent that UK progressive doom merchants Garganjua are cutting onto another plane entirely with their third album ‘Toward The Sun’. Musing on universal truths and the importance of grounding oneself in the present, the band’s sound flits between polarities of crushing rhythms and cacophony whilst colouring in the dark with their trademark expansive melodicism. Through sonically exploring what it means to spiritually transcend, the album’s thematically grandiose trilogy of tracks (‘Transcending’, ‘Transcendence’ & ‘Ascend (Awakening)’) will surely draw parallels to greats such as Pallbearer, Bossk and Elder in it’s abandonment of compositional and genre confines. Coupled with the feverish dynamism of cuts such as ‘Mire’ and ‘Light Bearer’, it’s hard to argue against the four piece’s own ascendency being anything short of breathtaking. Forging their own path through a slow and steady refinement of their sound and unfaltering belief in their artistic vision, Garganjua’s latest offering feels as otherworldly and monolithic as it does rooted in it’s own humanity and hope.