“Are we ever really in control of our destiny?”

A difficult, impossible to answer question that people wrestle with every day, and that Hail the Sun decide to tackle in their new album Divine Inner Tension. How does one decide when to take control and when to let go?

A hopeful, inspiring, deeply transformational body of music with catchy, well-developed hooks, this prog-rock masterpiece pulls in listeners from the opening track and maintains the energy throughout. Driving drum beats beautifully intertwined with harmonious basslines and guitar riffs that weave the listener to and from each scene of every song, it seems almost like Hail the Sun begs you to let go of control when listening to this album.

Themes of control continue to be heavy in the album with lyrics like “I’ll never change, I am the way I fluctuate, never the same. Call it the way I cope with how and where I go,” (“60 Minute Session Blocks”) and “the more I give up the better I feel” (“Maladapted”). It gets the heaviest with deeply political “Tithe” (arguably the best song on the album lyrically and musically) taking control into a different perspective.

Every song stands alone as a monument to a moment, a piece of healing, yet altogether they flow into a road map of visceral emotions warring between needing control and letting go - the common human experience. Every shift in melody feels methodical, not only to the song musically, but to the narrative of the album as a whole. At the end of the day, this is more than just an album, it’s an experience, and an aptly named one at that.

In addition, the production on this album is one of the best of the year. Crisp and clean with interesting effects outside of the music that only add to the experience and enhance the message of the album.

Great art can come from a place of pain, but so too can great art come from a place of inspiration. Hail the Sun more than proved that with this masterpiece of an album, so take a moment to pop on some headphones and let it all go. Welcome to Divine Inner Tension.

9.5/10