Album Review: The Sonic Dawn – Eclipse

The Sonic Dawn
Eclipse
Heavy Psych Sounds
★★★★

February 9, 2019

Danish band The Sonic Dawn is far removed in time and space. The band channels the hippy love ins of the 1960s San Francisco scene. Yet Eclipse is vital in research to the musical movement that made the iconic California sound fill with optimism through radicalized opposition.

The Sonic Dawn has David Crosby to thank as much as they do Cream for their musical makeup. Eclipse teeters between both philosophical ideas. Blending psychedelic mist and folk rock meanderings, I would not say that The Sonic Dawn has come up with something fresh and new. Yet, they are so bound by tradition it is hard not to ignore.

The Sonic Dawn – Psychedelic Ranger (Official Video)

“Forever 1969” is the ideal introduction, mentally putting us in context. Channeling the essence of Jack Bruce, their hippy pop is dreamy-eyed in a Groundhog Day theorem. They lay low on the acid rock or freak-out Beatles transcendence styles they often dapple with. Recording to tape from an analog studio in Denmark, this only helped build a respect between the music and its technology.

The distant echo of the drums on “Psychedelic Ranger,” the Zombies-like experimental pop structure on “Opening Night,” or the Hammond wig out on “Love Bird,” they do an amazing job reciprocating the aura of the late ‘60s. With our current social and political climate, Eclipse is well timed. There is hope that this album will create positivism in our society through the act of great musicianship. If people of the ‘60s made it through with aspirations to make the world a better place, we can too. In addition, the album also serves as a triumph by overcoming hardships and personal tragedy. Eclipse serves as the mechanism into the abyss of rock immortality pushing classic rock into the current psych rock scene.