In 2007 a young Israeli duo consisting of Davidov and Dahan started an old school death metal band named SONNE ADAM with the aim to create “death metal in the vein of early PARADISE LOST but with a more shamelessly evil and blasphemous touch and some MORBID ANGEL thrown in the mix”. Plain and simple.

The band’s first recording was an EP named “The Sun Is Dead” (which so far remains unreleased) followed by another EP named “Armed With Hammers” which caught the attention of underground label Imperium Productions from Germany who subsequently released it on 7” vinyl in 2010. The resulting underground buzz within the deepest depths of forums, fanzines etc. mounted in the renowned German Rock Hard magazine even awarding it the title “demo of the month” and predicting the band to become a hot topic among all death metal maniacs. Seeing SONNE ADAM developing into an amazing, highly promising underground act, Century Media Records picked them up for the release of the band’s debut album “Transformation” in cooperation with Imperium Productions who will handle the album’s vinyl version. The band itself never thought about ending up on such a big label as Davidov states: “We didn't imagine that we will receive so much attention when we wrote the album a year and a half ago, when the "Armed With Hammers" EP wasn't even released yet. Hell, we didn't even know back than how strong the old school death metal scene will be again. We never were "label hunters" so it was a big surprise. Actually, being from Israel and signing to a big label is more crucial than you think as we are very isolated from our crowd. No matter what, our heart is in the underground. Always was and always will be! If someone thinks that we are selling out he can go fuck himself. We are very pleased with signing with Century Media.”

Probably the band’s distance to the centres of the scene - Europe (especially Scandinavia) and the States - is the main reason why SONNE ADAM sound so pure, refreshingly raw and morbid and favour doomy and mid-paced sections over triggered ‘til death, clinical sounding highspeed brutality, something clearly done with intent as Davidov further explains:
“Slow and mid tempo parts often have a more serious attitude that works for us rather than the usual blast beat. Also, there are more than enough “fast” bands out there nowadays. I also think that the doom death metal scene in the 90’s had a monstrous potential that didn’t fully came to its limits.”
Despite the band’s isolated state, lack of fellow musicians, lack of other, stylistically roughly similar bands to play with, lack of experienced metal studios in their home country, their clear vision of where SONNE ADAM should be heading made Davidov and Dahan understand quite early on where to go for in terms of production:
“We recorded the album with our friend Eli Pikover who is also a producer and studio owner. We consulted with him on how to plan the recordings long before we were entering the studio. We knew pretty much what tone we wanted from the start so it was an easy and very efficient process. I personally think that “Gothic” by PARADISE LOST has a fantastic sound as it possesses a truly morbid atmosphere. Overall, we tried to capture the slightly weirder productions in metal as we find these often more magical than the standard heavy as fuck guitar tone and overly too compressed sound. We don't think such a production would have served our riffs right. We searched for a sound that can define us instead of just getting an HM2 and try to copy the Swedish sound (which I love, of course). We tried to capture our warmness here in our sound as in my opinion many do in their subconscious. Getting our own sound was a process of trial and error and yet that sound is pretty much what I sound like playing my guitar at home.”

The cornerstones of SONNE ADAM’s sound are heavy, detuned, diverse and all-consuming lava-esque riffs, unholy, triumphant vocals, thundering drums and a songwriting filled to the brim with fascinating twist and turns that toss the listener further down into a maelstrom of darkness. From start to finish “Transformation” provides death metal excellence with the monumental opening track “We Who Worship The Black” clearly sticking out as a carefully crafted, epic anthem of morbidity. Davidov reveals:
“"God of Emptiness" from MORBID ANGEL is a huge influence on my writing as it has the most mind blowing riffs that I heard as well as well-crafted drums and amazing vocals in my eyes. I can't count the number of time that I sat down to compose and said to myself "Oh yeah man, this will be our "God of Emptiness" song", hehe. It took us 3 months to write the whole piece. It was a short but very intense time that I wrote night and day every day of the week. I enjoyed every minute of it.”
This dedication and conviction transpires through every pore of the album which is an obvious result of the band’s general way of writing:
“"Transformation" is a quest like an alchemist who seeks the path to immortality. We are constantly trying to write the most evil and infecting album that we can. We pay great attention to details and song structures as well as the actual riffs. We try to compose the music using all the musical elements together instead of working on a single instrument at a time.”

Apart from its skilful compositions, its organic and warm sound, the album is further enhanced by stunning sinister artwork by the band’s comrade, young artist Ofer Inbal who already cooperated with SONNE ADAM on their previous EP release. The cover perfectly captures the metaphorical, dark and blasphemous tone of the lyrics and ultimately makes “Transformation” an authentic, occult and earnest metal opus that leaves nothing to desire and should find many new supporters among extreme metalheads worldwide. It’s an album that propagates originality implying respect for the original precursors and creative ingenuity in equal measure. It’s damn great dark death metal, plain and simple…