My first encounter with SEVEN)SUNS was two weeks into 2023 at La Suspendida, the Jazz-Metal-Opera brainchild of Kilter and William Berger, a massive undertaking in which the string quartet played a vital part. (Editor’s Note: read our review here.) Wait – violas and violins in metal? Of course. Connoisseurs of the progressive would expect violin in bands like Ne Obliviscaris, but the less familiar may be surprised to find strings in heavier, speedier bands like Fleshgod Apocalypse. While such symphonic metal may not be for everyone, let’s not pretend the haunted wailing of orchestral instruments has no place in metal. 

That being said, SEVEN)SUNS is not just about metal, with one of their biggest influences being The Dillinger Escape Plan. The reach into metalcore, with its grindy hardcore punk influences, really works for the quartet. They don’t even need a screeching vocalist to achieve the chaos. Their arrangement of Dillinger’s 43% Burnt was a whole other level of jarring entertainment. Their original pieces were also brimming with calculated discord. Now, in early August, the performance transported me back to January: shivers, with awe, somehow toeing the line of deep-seated dread. 

With 2023 marking the tenth anniversary of The Dillinger Escape Plan’s monumental fifth album, One of Us Is the Killer, classical music disruptors Seven)Suns have reinterpreted the entire masterpiece, start to finish, as eleven new pieces, arranged for violin, viola, and cello. The album will be released on Silent Pendulum Records on September 29th.

Pre-order the album, here:

https://silentpendulumrecords.com/products/sevensuns-one-of-us-is-the-killer

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY REBECCA PAIGE