ENEMY OF THE SUN - Escaping The Grips Of Despair
by Martin Popoff

Even though he says he is "realistic that as a newcomer band" his touring options are limited, Waldemar Sorychta and his pretty damn interesting new Enemy Of The Sun troupe are getting good notices as well as festival dates for the summer. In actual fact, says Sorychta, they've been booked "on three out of the five biggest European festivals this summer."

This quick step forward can be attributed to a couple of things. First off, Waldemar is a marquee name in the underground - he's a respected and prolific producer (Tiamat, Lacuna Coil, Moonspell, Sentenced, Samael) as well as a band member in his own right, through his work with Grip Inc. and Despair. Secondly, the band's first record Shadows is an irresistible and effortlessly listenable amalgam of European thrash and Fin-doom with melodies from... man, System Of A Down even comes to mind, not to mention Soulfly, Voivod, Hevy Devy as solo artist... yes, perhaps it's best to chuck all attempt at articulating the sound.

"I think the mission is to make cool music," laughs Sorychta, who says his love of flamenco music informs the band's sound, almost as much as the fact that he rarely listens to music at all, let alone metal. "Basically 2003, 2004, the last Grip was recorded and released, and nobody really knew if Grip was going to continue or not. Dave hadn't made a decision at this time whether he was going to go with Slayer or not. But prior to 2004, when he made the decision to go to Slayer, I needed something new to continue with my music - I can't live without it. I'm not this guy who is spending all day playing games. I like to play guitar and I like to play music. And I was searching for the right people, and I think I've been very, very lucky to find these guys so quickly. So basically between 2005 in 2006, the band was perfect."

"But inspiration? I would say life is inspiration enough. Every time I make music, it's without thinking who might like it or not. One day you come home and you're pissed, another day you come home and you're happy, and you always have different feelings inside of you. I'm not telling myself, okay, today, you write fast songs and tomorrow you write slow songs. Every day brings new feelings, and I like to pour them into the music."

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