NIGHT SUN

While it's tempting to think that most of the German rock bands of the early 70s were cranking out the kosmische sounds of Krautrock in the vein of Amon Duul II or Can, there existed in fact a few bands that weren't seeking escapism but rather searching for speed and volume excesses. While some Kraut bands like Embryo favored jazz and others like Tangerine Dream dropped the rock altogether to craft the freakiest electronic sounds ever heard, others like Birth Control, Lucifer's Friend and NIGHT SUN were going for the early heavy metal gusto, more infatuated by Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath than anything coming from the homeland. NIGHT SUN was formed in Mannheim in 1970 and only existed for three years as well as releasing only a single album yet the band's lone offering MOURNIN' is considered one of the heaviest rock albums to have emerged just after the world of proto-metal had been born.

While the Scorpions would become Germany's biggest heavy metal band, in 1972 that band's debut "Lonesome Crow" had one foot in the world of Krautrock and the other in heavier rock but NIGHT SUN on the other hand delivered one scorcher of an album that has gone down in history as one of metal's most essential early contributors to inspiring the future sounds of thrash metal, power metal and even progressive metal for that matter. Like many bands of the day before the term metal had really become a true genre and the spirit of experimentation was en vogue, MOURNIN' was more than an early precursor to the world of metal but also delivered an intriguing mix of 60s heavy psych, excursions of psychedelia and most of all labyrinthine progressive rock elements that made this band one of the earliest heavy prog bands that true embraced the wild complexities that the early 70s prog albums cranked out.

Despite delivering a scorching heavy rock album, the band was lucky enough to find Conny Planck in the producer's seat who had famously worked with Faust, Kraftwerk, David Bowie and a gazillion other prominent acts of the era but despite that good fortune was utterly ignored suffering the same indignity that many a band experienced with lackluster record labels that had no clue how to market their products. Somewhat of a mix of Uriah Heep, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Lucifer's Friend, NIGHT SUN sounded like no other although it embraced the same organ driven heaviness that many heavier bands were embracing during the day. The band knew no limits though and through the nine tracks that mostly cranked out heavy guitar riffs still found a way to incorporate the bassoon and saxophone into the mix. The album starts out with the blitzkrieg delivery of "Plastic Shotgun" which features some of the fastest riffing and accompanying bass and drum action that the 70s had to offer.

The album meanders in the world of psychedelia with the near 8-minute "Got A Bone Of My Own" which despite offering a heady excursion into trippiness didn't really fit in with the world of Krautrock as even during these more chilled moments the band was still based in bluesy rock that had moments of heavy guitar distortion, trippy echo effects and a heavy psych sound more in the vein of Jimi Hendrix than fellow countrymen Birth Control. One of the most prominent features of NIGHT SUN's proggy heavy rock was the idiosyncratic vocal style of Bruno Schaab who sounded like a more ambitious Robert Plant with his brash bravado and nasal tone structures. The composiitons were heavily laced with many hairpin rhythmic shifts with extra tight guitar and organ interplay. The riffs are particularly bombastic and tracks like "Nightmare" offer a frenzied adrenalized speedfest which prognosticates the worlds of thrash and power metal styles that would emerge in the next decade.

NIGHT SUN's sole contribution to the world of heavy 70s prog is a must for anyone seeking out the origins of metal and despite having a somewhat dated sound that perfectly exemplifies the zeitgeist of the era is a feast to the ears for those who love the early proto-metal sounds of blues rocks blasting in high decibels accompanied by rampaging tempos and touches of downtime with psychedelic time period freakiness. NIGHT SUN had its origins in the 60s band jazz band Take Five which never released any material but was popular on the Mannheim circuit. The last track on MOURNIN' titled "Don't Start Flying" offers a tribute to that band with clever saxophone and bassoon extras. While the band didn't really craft a new sound per se as it exemplified the standard bluesy rock with distortion and speed turned up a few notches, NIGHT SUN nevertheless offered an excellent adventurous album within that framework and is now considered one of those lost gems of the 70s.

A friend recommended this album to me. His recommendation was not wrong. The overall sound is generally more contemporary than I expected, though the more balladic "Come Down" felt to me to be more of its time and the persistently consistent organ sound indicates the provenance.

The brief opener, Plastic Shotgun, is explosive. Crazy Woman, is initially very LED ZEPELLIN-like but with an excellent guitar solo. Next is the more progressive sounding Got A Bone Of My Own clocking in at 7:45 with its wonderfully atmospheric start and the vocals not starting until almost 5 minutes in! Slush Pan Man is a rocker. Living With The Dying starts with a suitably ominous vocal and includes a great drum solo followed by guitar and organ trading leads. Come Down is, as already indicated, slower and ends with some excellent guitar work, Blind has a bit of a bluesy feel to it. Nightmare is another rocker. Don't Start Flying ends the record with a twist by adding sax into the sound.

Really there is not a really weak track in there!

Vocally, the songs are delivered with a very ROBERT PLANT-like vocal but, as other reviewers have noted, all credit to Bruno Schaab who delivers them without any discernible trace of a German accent (which works when the song is in English). Instrumentally the album has more of a DEEP PURPLE vibe.

The album was produced by Conny Plank who produced the early KRAFTWERK albums and also produced GURU GURU to which Bruno Schaab moved after Night Sun.

A really interesting discovery which would make a worthwhile addition for anyone interested in proto-progressive metal.

This is the best album that i have ever heard so far, especially that this is Heavy Metal when they haven't know what Heavy Metal is. Especially the musical influences this album has, The vocals, the instrumentations, they are just perfect! Although i must say this album is too heavy for my Prog mindset and too soft for my Metal mindset, this album, however, matches what i was actually searching until this day. The Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin influences in this album are great too! It's like i'm listening to 3 of those bands i mentioned above making an album together! This is a masterpiece of Heavy Prog for me.

This is one of those albums where it might have been really big had it came out a couple of years earlier. Night Sun take a proto-metal template derived mainly from classic Deep Purple - complete with a prominent role for Knut Rossler's electric organ - and turns it up to 11, creating faster and more furious pieces than anything attempted by Deep Purple at this point in time.

Multi-instrumentalist Rossler is the star player here, incorporating trumpet and bassoon into the band's sound in order to up the musical complexity and diversity, and manages to do so without compromising heaviness. However, emerging as it did at a time when metal was beginning to move away from the electric organ as a staple instrument of heavy rock, it's a bit of a musical dead end, with some compositions coming across as throwing everything they can at the listener in the hope that something will stick. Still, this is an interesting reminder of the time when heavy groups' instrumentation was not quite so limited, as well as a suggestion of the sonic possibilities were groups to become a bit more broad-minded today.

Warning! Do ot play at 78 RPM

This singular offering from German hard rock band Night Sun harbours many what ifs. Embraced by younger generations of headbangers as a harbinger of various metal stylings, it has frequently been specifically compared to Deep Purple on speed or other stimulant drugs. The music nonetheless contains enough progressive attributes to invite the attention of fans of the early seventies progrock effusion who might have overlooked this 1972 jewel engineered by German mixing board wizard Conny Plank incorporating his wild & wonderful studio phase-shifting effects.

The first thing that the musically informed will notice are the syncopatic rhythmic structures that form the foundation of the heavy guitar / Hammond organ riffing that gives their music a certain depth. Keyboard player / multi-instrumentalist Knut Rossler had experience playing jazz in the late 60s in an ensemble named Take Five that also included members of Kin Ping Meh and this must have had some bearing on the more technical aspects of this otherwise hard rocking album. Bass player Bruno Schaab's melodic groovin' high register vocals also provided the band with vocal power that was missing with other German bands who sang in broken English.

I purchased the album ca. 1978 from a second hand shop without having even heard it and couldn't believe these guys were from Germany. Sounding more like something from the UK because of the instrumental configuration. There was definitely some Genesis , ELP & Crimson influences hiding in there if one listened carefully to tracks like the textured & almost epic Come Down, the Hammond driven Nightmare or the dark & jazzy sax led Don't Start Flying. I wished that there were moremusically intricate tracks on the album because it was evident that these guys were capable musicians. When the internet came to prominence in the late 90s the album started to recieve rave-ups on metal sites and blogspots on the merits of a few of the " thrashier " tracks such as Plastic Shotgun, Blind and Crazy Woman. There were all these comparisons to 70s heavy hitters such as Led Zep, Deep Purple and Uriah Heep that I couldn't comprehend at all. Perhaps one bluesy track, Slush Pan Man, could be distantly likened to Black Sabbath but that would really be clutching at straws. Think more of early 70s hard rocking power trios Sir Lord Baltimore, Jeronimo or Dust and you are closer to Night Sun's heaviness that all the metal heads and stoners are obsessing over on these sites.

Along with a few other German one album wonders such as Spermull I wonder where NightSun would have gone had they had the opportunity to mature. 1972 was definitely a happening year musically for both progressive and hard rock bands and perhaps this is why Night Sun became another ant on the hill that quickly faded away into solitary confinement ( although Bassist / vocalist Bruno Schaab surfaced on two Guru Guru LPs). Fortunately, even if for the wrong reasons, Night Sun's Mournin' has been resurrected over the internet, acquiring a certain cult status and is easily obtained on CD on Second Battle although an original Zebra vinyl edition might require a bit of searching.

This is a highly rated album in some circles, even though it's pretty much straight-up Hard Rock recording. These Germans released this gem in 1972 with English vocals to boot. I find the first side a difficult listen. It's so abrasive and loud that i'm looking for some codeine part way through the first track. It's like on the second side they decided to stop dragging their nails down the chalk board and do something more interesting.The excellent second side still doesn't save this from being only a 3 star album though.

"Plastic Shotgun" is raw and in your face. Insane is maybe the right word. Lots of organ on "Crazy Woman", while "Got A Bone Of My Own" (classy title) is somewhat experimental early before we get a guitar melody before 3 minutes.This is nasty. "Slush Pan Man" is again loud and annoying to these ears. Things get better with "Living With The Dying" which is probably the best track on here. The vocals are great early on before it settles with drums and organ leading. Nice guitar after 3 1/2 minutes too. "Come Down" builds to an excellent sound. "Blind" and the other two tracks bring us back to that straight forward Hard Rock sound.

To sum up, this is a good, raw, hard rockin' album from the early seventies.

After major disappointments with such hard prog hypes as May Blitz & Irish Coffee, Night Sun is the jewel that makes taking chances on obscurities so satisfying. Many have noted the guitar & organ driven music that compares well to Deep Purple. They are correct. But imagine the Mars Volta putting out an album in the early 70s, with more concise songs, but still the same melting pot of the day's influences , musically. The singer sounds like Mars Volta's to the point where you wonder if he spent time in the U.S. (Daddy ???) . Some people that I've played this have said some of the instrumental parts remind them of Yes' solo forays, but the virtuosity is not quite there, and the musical motif not as well developed. But if you love hard edged prog, wish that Purple had further developed their prog tendencies, mixed them with a little psychedelia, then Night Sun is sure to delight you. Now if only we could get a few collabs from PA to throw in their two cents on this tasty platter ...

NIGHT SUN was a one album band who released their only release in 1972. It's fairly heavy traditonal metal, with all the elements of BLACK SABBATH and LED ZEPPELIN. However, it's also noted for it's recognition to early doom metal and stoner rock, such as KYUSS and the other Palm Desert Scene bands in the 90's, in addition to QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE. This album was 20 years before it's time...and it works. It's slightly more melodic and less drone-like than some of the legendary bands it inspired, but it's possibly one of the most underrated albums in history. The guitar work is riveting, the drumming is exceptional, and the vocals all add to the stylized proto-metal this album is. This album is recommended for any fans of DEEP PURPLE, LED ZEPPELIN, BLACK SABBATH, and even such bands such as ELECTRIC WIZARD and KYUSS.

An amazing album and such a shame that this was they're only album. The band showed a lot of promise. Heavy like Black Sabbath, but in the vain of Deep Purple. Great lead guitar work too. A must have!

Put LED ZEPPELIN, BLACK SABBATH and DEEP PURPLE into a blender and you get this! The voice is very similar to ROBERT PLANT, the heavy sound is a bit like BLACK SABBATH and the tremendous organ-guitar combination reminds me a lot of DEEP PURPLE. Listen to "SLUSH PAN MAN" ! WOW. It bangs hard in your face!!! It's heavy progressive rock at it's best!