With their second album “Tower of the Sun,” the American duo Sindar — formed by multi-instrumentalists Kona Ossana and Christian Lucy — reach a new creative peak in the ever-expanding universe of Progressive and Extreme Metal. A cinematic blend of melodic grandeur and crushing heaviness, the record dives deep into themes of death, grief, and transcendence, echoing mythological undertones inspired in part by the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. Engineered and mastered by the band themselves and mixed by the legendary Dan Swanö (Opeth, Katatonia, Edge of Sanity), “Tower of the Sun” is an intricate yet emotional journey where every riff, lyric, and vocal layer contributes to a vast sonic tapestry of light and darkness. Progressive Rock Journal had the pleasure to discuss the album’s vision, the creative process behind it, and the balance between brutality and beauty that defines Sindar’s unmistakable identity.
“Tower of the Sun” represents a major step forward from your debut “Splintered Light.” How would you describe the main evolution between the two albums — both musically and thematically?
Christian: “I would say that this is definitely a heavier album in a lot of ways, there’s just a lot more riffs. We kind of went out of our way to write more concise ideas, and I think even though this is a shorter album we were able to fit more music into the shorter length. There’s just a lot more that happens in each song and I think compared to our first one, the first LP, which was a little more groovy, a little more jammy, just kind of more broad. Whereas this one I think our songwriting became a lot more concise and I think we were able just to say a lot more musically.“
Kona: “I’d say thematically we probably took a little bit of a step back from the Tolkien theme. It’s still there, it’s still a source of inspiration I think, but it’s more of that rather than like a literal translation of his work. I mean we still did that but we adapted it more or used it as a tool to tell our own stories or used it as a device through which we could tell metaphors.“
The record feels both cinematic and intimate, as if it were telling a story through contrasting forces. What kind of atmosphere or emotional journey did you aim to build for the listener?
Christian: “Yeah so for this one I feel like, I don’t think we set out really to do this, but I do feel like each song lyrically does go on more of a journey than on our previous album. I think we set out specifically to do more vocals, whether it’s clean or harsh vocals. And I think just overall each song, while they’re not necessarily all connected to each other, I wouldn’t say this is a concept album, I do think that we were able to (within each song) almost tell a more linear, almost like a story, just thinking of whether it’s like Ranger or Tower of the Sun. I think that was definitely one of the benefits of us just trying to put more vocals into the album as a whole.“
Kona: “I feel like the contrasting forces kind of come naturally as a result of the type of music that we write. We’ve got very heavy stuff, we’ve got very soft, more acoustic stuff. So I think when you’re shaping that sound, it’s going to come naturally. I think we both enjoy big dynamics in music. I think Eclipse is like an exception, right? I mean even then it comes down dynamically, and that’s a song that we were trying to keep more aggressive the entire time. So I think it just comes naturally to us to write songs with big dynamics. And so, as far as a musical experience, that’s just inherently built in, whereas lyrically you kind of are writing to suit the mood that you set musically. At least for us, we start with the music most of the time.“
You’ve mentioned that “Tower of the Sun” deals with themes such as death, grief, identity, and ritual sacrifice. How did these ideas take shape during the writing process, and how personal are they to you as artists?
Kona: “We intentionally went in trying to write more vocals. So naturally we need more lyrics, that’s just part of the deal there. It’s not like the first record where there are a lot of oohs and ahhs when we didn’t write lyrics for them. But this one, we do touch on a lot more personal subjects, I think at least for myself, for the songs that I was writing. My brother passed away after the first album came out, and that was kind of a big, obviously a very significant impact on my life. And it affected the band a lot. We had just released an album, and I feel like it maybe slowed us down, which is fair enough. I mean, we were also in the middle of a pandemic. So I think that naturally came through in my lyric writing. I think it’s hard to avoid when something like that happens to you, and I just couldn’t really help but do it.
I think some songs have more clear metaphors, like Tower of the Sun, the metaphor is the sun being grief or the reality in which you find yourself, paired with contrast between day and night, and being able to maybe escape reality when you’re sleeping, that kind of idea. And Nightingale is another one that I think stemmed from grief in some ways, but it also, we were kind of able to adapt it into a more Tolkien-esque narrative, I think, that worked really well. So it’s still very personal, but it’s also easy to distance myself from in some ways.“
Tolkien’s influence is clearly present, especially in “Nightingale,” inspired by the tale of Beren and Lúthien. How does Middle-earth mythology connect with your own lyrical and emotional world?
Christian: “For the first album, we were really more so just trying to almost just recreate a lot of Tolkien’s lore in that album, whereas this one, we wanted to explore it more in more personal ways, rather than what he said in the appendices or stuff like that. So we do have a couple songs, like Black Moth, which are kind of almost just basically retelling elements of the story. We have other ones, like Greenfields, where it does, to an extent, retell the story, but more so than just here’s what happens, so-and-so went where, they did this. It was more of, how can we write music from their perspective of certain characters, and kind of take a more introspective and personal approach. Even for a song like Eclipse, Tolkien, as far as I know, he never wrote an essay of, this is exactly what happened to the nine men who took the rings from Sauron. So it was kind of fun for us to explore, well, what would have happened? What would it have been like to essentially lose your humanity, lose your soul? So we wanted to just take things a little more in-depth. We wanted to just kind of explore things in our own way a bit more, while staying loosely within that kind of Tolkien framework.“
Kona: “Yeah, I’d agree with what Christian said. If you look at how we’ve adapted maybe small parts of the Tolkien lore to expand upon, I think the last track, Inheritance, is a good example. Tolkien had talked about the blue wizards, and I think it was maybe two sentences total that he had given thought to, really. He didn’t expand on it, other than saying, oh, I think at one point, they went off to the east and started dark magic and cults and stuff like that. So we kind of ran with that and decided, oh, what if we elaborate on that or at least tell that story musically? I don’t think it necessarily adds anything to the lore. It’s not like fan fiction, but it’s more like expanding on a small idea that he had.“
The album title itself — “Tower of the Sun” — evokes both light and transcendence. What does this symbol represent within the context of the record?
Kona: “I don’t think we really set out with the album title being Tower of the Sun originally. I don’t think we knew what to call it. I think naming an album is really tough. The song Tower of the Sun is a song that kind of surprised us in its execution. Originally, it was almost a throwaway, like, should we even keep this on the album? It ended up being a really special song. And I think the imagery of Tower of the Sun is just really perfect for the record. I think, again, that song kind of has a contrast between the sun and night and the sun being, not evil necessarily, but kind of like a burden. I think that represents the contrast between the heavy and the light of the album itself.“
Christian: “To expand on that, I think one thing for both of us that we love and need from our music is pretty much, I don’t know if dichotomy is the right word, but I would never, ever want to write an album that’s just dark and heavy and brutal the whole time. I would also never want to write an album that’s just bright, clean or cheerful the whole time. For me, it’s that kind of that contrast between whether it’s music we create or music we listen to, having music that within the same album or the same song can just be terrifying and brutal and shake you to your core and then winds up later just something that’s completely beautiful or transcendent, as you say. I think for me and for both of us artistically, we just wouldn’t feel complete without being able to explore basically the full range of emotions. And I think that is kind of one of the bigger concepts on the album, whether it’s the song Tower of the Sun or the song Eclipse, which is about the stars or the sun being blotted out. I just think that’s probably the biggest and most important part of our sound is that kind of the contrast between the lightness and the dark that I think kind of makes us who we are.“
Despite being a duo, Sindar achieves an immense and layered sound. How do you divide roles and maintain creative balance when composing and arranging such complex material?
Christian: “I think one thing that helps us as a duo, is that we’re really lucky to naturally have amazing chemistry. That’s just kind of the luck of the draw thing, you know. We met years ago playing in different bands and whenever we started this band things just clicked really well, which I think is super important when you’re just a duo. And then we also have really complementary skill sets. Kona played drums on the album, he played bass on the album, he does the harsh vocals. We’re both, you know, neither of us are true primarily guitarists and even as guitarists we both have really different skills. You know, I play more like in open D, which is a big part of our sound. Kona plays a lot more in standard/drop D, so different tunings that can complement each other really well. Our clean vocal styles are very different. Obviously I play keys as well, so I think it’s kind of the combination of having really good inherent chemistry, wanting the same things out of our music, having shared goals, and then having skill sets that fit together well. You know, we’re not stepping on each other’s toes, we kind of push ourselves to become better, especially as guitarists and vocalists. That’s been kind of the most fun thing for me, is just having that other person to bounce off ideas and it feels, at least for me, really liberating in that way.“
Kona: “I think for me, like Christian said, we have different skill sets in terms of our, you know, our playing and then also what instruments we play, but also in our songwriting. The songwriting approach to this album was a lot different than the first one. I think it was a lot more intentional and we went in kind of demoing out everything start to finish. Like, we didn’t really jam on ideas, it was more like bringing ideas in ideas, you know, respectively, and then making them work together. I think very rarely do either of us bring in one idea and then it just stays that way. I think Ranger or Tower of the Sun are both good examples. They’re ideas that I brought in, at least parts of, and then they didn’t really take full form until Christian and I were in a room together and we were able to especially arrange the form and add these connective pieces. I think Christian’s really good at that, about, you know, connecting all these ideas that either of us have. In contrast to that, where it’s like maybe I brought in the main idea or Christian brought in the main idea, Eclipse, Field of the Dead and Inheritance are really good examples of us kind of sitting down with some small ideas and then just like, I mean, it was like a creative explosion. We just were able to sit down and work it out in a few hours. Not the entire song, but like, you know, the songs kind of came out of nowhere. So, I think it’s something that we do really well together, filling in the gap when somebody maybe can’t think of something else to do or I think the way that we write music really complements each other.“
Working with Dan Swanö is a statement in itself. How did the collaboration come about, and what impact did his mixing have on the final sound of the album?
Kona: “You know, it’s pretty simple. He offers mixing services and we paid him for those services (laughs). But no, really, I think, you know, I have my own home studio and we recorded everything here and the last album I mixed, and I think this album we decided we wanted another set of ears on the music. We felt so strongly about the songs that we felt like, I feel like I’m a capable engineer and I could have done a good job, but also it’s not really about whether it’s good or not. It’s about having something that’s different and having somebody else to listen in on it and adapt it in their own way. And Dan has an impressive catalog of music that he’s worked on. It’s not just the Opeth stuff or the Katatonia stuff, as far as like production goes. I mean, he’s also like an incredible songwriter. I think Edge of Sanity’s Crimson is an album that we both are really inspired by. He also did the mix on the, not the most recent, but one of the Wilderun albums that came out a few years ago. And it’s just incredible. We knew that he could handle the dynamic part of our music, you know, the heavy and the soft. And so, naturally, when we were looking around for people to mix it, like he came up immediately as somebody that we knew that we could trust to do an amazing job.“
Tracks like “Eclipse” and “Inheritance” display a remarkable contrast between aggression and melody. How do you approach dynamics and balance in your songwriting process?
Christian: “Yeah, I think for us, melody is maybe, it might honestly be the most important aspect of our sound. I think a lot of our influences, you know, both of us, we do love a lot of metal, but we listen to a ton of stuff outside of metal. I would say neither of us are true, pure metalheads. And so even within that metal space, a lot of our biggest influences like Opeth or Alcest, a lot of those bands naturally have a really strong sense of melody. We’re not really super into, we’re not really super fans of, you know, more that kind of caveman, ultra rhythmic, heavy stuff. I think melody is just a big part of our individual tastes. Obviously we love that harder, heavier, aggressive side, but I think, I think it just kind of reflects our influences, we can’t really help ourselves from adding, I think, melodies. I think personally that the melodies on this album are maybe the thing I’m the most proud of.“
The vocal arrangements are particularly striking, featuring both harsh and clean voices, as well as guest singers. What was your vision behind these vocal textures?
Kona: “I think we really went in, it’s a more natural process, I think, when you’re writing something lyrically that’s really brutal and heavy, like Eclipse, you’re going to want to do harsh vocals. The first record there weren’t as many harsh vocals in comparison. I think it’s something that we wanted to do more of, but we also wanted, I wanted, to do more vocals in general, right? We also did more clean vocals, so there are more melodies.
I love big stacks of harmonies. I think a good way to get texture and have harmony that sticks out a bit more is to have different voices singing, and the idea of like female vocals is just something that really appeals to both of us, and I think something that we obviously just can’t achieve ourselves, so having Serena and Sarah both sing on the album really added a whole other layer that I’m sure we’ll want to continue exploring in whatever we write next.“
“Nightingale” stands out as a haunting, almost ballad-like piece. Could you tell us more about how that track was born and what it represents within the album’s narrative arc?
Kona: “Nightingale is obviously noteworthy for having no drums, you know, no distorted guitars at all, and we very much went in with a mindset of writing the song that way. I think a lot of the time songs like that can get overlooked. On Ghost Reveries there’s a song called Hours of Wealth, and I think that song gets super looked over. Every time I’ve ever seen somebody rank songs on the album they just put it at the bottom just because it doesn’t have drums, it’s not heavy. I don’t know, but I love songs like that, so I think we kind of went in with that as a basis. It inspired us to write a song that way, and I had a bunch of ideas laying around that I knew that I wanted to use on a softer song, and so Christian and I got together. It’s like one of those songs that just kind of came together super naturally.
One thing in particular about that song that I really like is that there are a few melodies, but there’s one that repeats itself, and it’s played instrumentally and vocally, and then it kind of closes out the song, and that melody is just so, it’s so good. Not to toot our own horn, but I really like that melody. I like the way that we approached it. I think it almost has kind of a fantasy-esque sound to it, maybe a little bit cheesy, but I think it strikes the perfect balance.“
The production feels organic yet massive — a rare combination in Progressive Death Metal. How important was it for you to keep that human, emotional element in the sound?
Christian: “I think one reason why we are able to kind of get this more natural sound is because we were able to record it ourselves, which I think does kind of play a role in the final product. We weren’t really, you know, we were under self-induced pressure to, you know, get good tones and play well, but it’s not like we were on the clock in a studio. I know the two of us, you know, a lot of the metal we are into is kind of more organic, almost more broad stuff for we love prog and prog metal, but we lean more towards that sort of stuff rather than the stuff that’s hyper-rhythmic, hyper-precise.
I think the parts we wrote, they definitely pushed us, especially as guitarists, but I think they’re all parts that we were comfortable playing. I think we definitely learned a ton from the first LP. We did a few things differently. Production-wise with this album, we did more low gain tones, so we were able to beef up the sound quite a bit. Obviously, having a bunch of keyboards really helps, but I think we were able to take what we did from the first album, kind of fine-tune things, so we got a heavier, bigger sound without it coming across as oversaturated or too produced, too processed. I think most of the tones on the album are essentially the way that they got fed into the microphones, so I think that helped our sound stay pretty organic and natural.“
Kona: “Yeah, I think in that regard, it’s like the guitars and the bass and stuff, but to me, the most important thing to keep the more human element or human sound, or whatever you want to call it, is the drums. I think, and this is just personal taste, but I think a lot of modern metal has drums that are just way too processed, sound super triggered. It’s just not for me. As a drummer, that’s my first thing that I did musically, was play drums. That’s what I used to think as my main thing. Coming from that place, I just love when drums sound real. Obviously, everything is processed. This album does have processing on it to make it sound better, of course, but I like to think that the drums in particular keep it grounded. We didn’t over-edit anything, I don’t think. I don’t think the guitars are too processed. They’re a little scratchy sometimes, in a good way. It just feels like somebody’s actually in a room playing with you. I think, to me, as an engineer, not even as a songwriter, it’s really important for me to keep that element in our music.“
The artwork by Gabriel F. Danilchik perfectly reflects the album’s grandeur. How did you work with him to translate your musical vision into visual form?
Kona: “Neither Christian or I are really visual artists in any way. We like to put our trust into people that we know are going to execute their own ideas well. The way that we worked with Gabe is pretty simple. We sent him the music. We sent him a brief synopsis of the subject matter of each song. Then he went through and found something that inspired him. I think we let him know that we were probably going to name the album Tower of the Sun. That probably influenced his decision-making. Honestly, he’s super easy to work with because he’s so good at what he does. I think he sent us a rough sketch of the album art and it was already 70-80% there. I think we had maybe one or two notes, but I think he just is somebody in particular who’s artistic values as a visual artist line up with our musical values. I think that they just go perfectly together. He did the last album too. I look at both of these album covers and I’m blown away.
It’s something I could never even dream of coming up with myself.“
Lyrically, “Tower of the Sun” seems to explore the conflict between light and darkness — not only as mythic forces, but as inner human struggles. Would you say the record is also a form of catharsis?
Kona: “I would say for me, it was in terms of lyric writing. It’s really nice to be able to write lyrics that explore what you’re feeling rather than adhering to Middle Earth mythology.
I think, again, that was a big difference between the last album and this one. I felt like lyrically, I was maybe more inspired by my own life. I was able to take that and run with it. I think when you’re feeling things, you just need to express it in some ways. Lyrically, that’s how it worked out for me.
You could argue that the album musically is a form of catharsis too, because we’ve been pent up for the last five years with all these really good song ideas. We were finally able to get them out and recorded. The process for this album was crazy. I think we had a lot of ideas for the new songs, or at least a couple songs, almost completely written back in 2020 when we released the first album. We’ve been holding onto this material that, at least for me, is on a whole other level. The album itself felt really, really good to complete and finally put out.“
How do you see Sindar’s place within the modern Progressive Metal scene? Do you feel part of a movement, or do you prefer to stay outside of any defined category?
Kona: “That’s tough, I would say that we feel like such a small band that I don’t think I’ve ever considered myself part of any scene, really. Salt Lake is in a little bit of an island in terms of distance from everything. It’s tough for us to tour. It’s tough for us to get out and spread our music that way, through shows, although we do play here locally. But again, I don’t think we’ve come to the place where we visualize ourselves outside of just making the music that we want to make. If people like it, that’s great. We’re so happy that the response has been pretty positive so far. I don’t think we’re really thinking outside of the scope of ourselves.“
Christian: “Yeah, I think for us, you know, like Kona said, being in a bit of an island, even in Salt Lake, you know, we play several times throughout the year. We’re definitely an active band, but it’s not uncommon for us to play on a bill and feel a little bit out of place. You know, maybe we’re the heaviest band on a bill of softer bands, or we’re maybe the least heavy band on a bill of heavier death or doom metal bands. I think also too, at least for me, you know, I think I definitely have some imposter syndrome a little bit, you know, I wouldn’t consider myself primarily a guitarist. You know, I’ve been playing keys my whole life. That’s my personal forte. So it’s been really cool to see the response we’ve gotten in the greater prog and metal scene. I don’t want to, you know, I wouldn’t want to get too greedy and say, oh man, we’re the newest big thing in prog metal. I think we try to stay really humble. But I will say, I think the response we have gotten in the prog scene and the metal scene for such a niche artist like us, it’s been pretty overwhelming and awesome.“
Finally, what’s next for Sindar after this monumental release? Are there plans for live performances, videos, or perhaps a conceptual continuation of “Tower of the Sun”?
Christian: “We definitely want to keep the momentum going as much as possible. I think, you know, we’re planning on playing live as much as we can. Certainly we still have some other kind of post release things that we want to do. I know from the previous album, we obviously, you know, kind of had some personal things going on. We had a pandemic. We also wrote another album for a different band that we’re in with the two of us. So I think we kind of want to just keep pushing Sindar as much as we can. We want to get back into writing, you know, very soon, probably the beginning of this coming year. And I think, yeah, we kind of want to just keep pushing forward, keep focusing our creative efforts mostly on this group and kind of see where we can go with it.“
Kona: “Yeah, like Christian said, the response has been so good that honestly, it breaks my heart a little bit that we haven’t ever played outside of Salt Lake. So I’m hoping that we can make something happen. You know, it won’t be like flying to Europe or something, but it’ll be more like, you know, going to a state or two over and playing some shows. So I would keep your eye out on that or if there are places people want us to play, please let us know. And yeah, we’re going to keep making music and we’re going to keep supporting this album for the next while, you know, like I hope we can maybe do some more music videos maybe or maybe some more merch releases and stuff like that. So definitely, yeah, keep your eye out for that stuff.“
“Tower of the Sun” stands as a testament to Sindar’s unwavering vision — a masterfully constructed world where myth and emotion intertwine through sound. With their unique blend of technical precision and heartfelt storytelling, Kona Ossana and Christian Lucy prove that Progressive Metal can still sound profound, daring, and deeply human. As the duo continues to expand their creative horizons, one thing is certain: the light that shines from their tower will continue to guide listeners through the darkest of realms.
Purchase “Tower Of The Sun” on Bandcamp: https://sindar.bandcamp.com/album/tower-of-the-sun
Read our Review here: https://progrockjournal.com/review-sindar-tower-of-the-sun/