"It was a freezing cold night on December 2nd as my wife and I walked into the Mad Planet in Milwaukee. The headliner was Marcella, a group we’d seen before and enjoyed greatly. I hadn’t checked on the openers to find out what to expect, but I’m glad I didn’t, because my expectations were completely blown away.
The night started with an incredible band from Appleton called Sunday Flood. This band is heavy, passionate, and intense. Sunday Flood has the rhythmic complexity of Tool, with odd time signatures and intricate drumming, but with a melodic sound all their own. From the very first song, I was hooked. My foot was tapping, my head was bopping, and my lips were smiling. Each member brought incredible talent and voice to the band. The singer part sang and part screamed, giving emotional intensity to the already physically intense riffs. The bass player had the gain cranked, while still retaining both melodic and rhythmic importance in the band. The guitars drove the songs forward in a roller-coaster ride of dynamic hard rock." - The Milwaukee Scene
"This Wisconsin trio pushes out some mean emo tunes. Like smooth soaring vocals that twist into screams, breaking through the stop start rhythm section and flying higher than the soaring guitar. Not totally polished at their sound, but passionate. Overdramatic, but that's to be expected. Less punk and more rock, but the anger flows through the sky, pushing lyrics like the anguish of poetry. "I'll suffocate; I can't breathe, I'm drowning/Gone tomorrow, I'll wait today�" There's a hint of an ache, and the stain of beauty, and the sound that fills a thousand broken windows, looking out." - Ink 19
"Easily my favorite band off of an overwhelmingly outstanding label, Sunday Flood are the perfect combination of power and emotion without quite transcending into the more chaotic nature of hardcore. This Wisconsin trio's second full-length album, the first on SunSeaSky, combines themes of loss and frustration along with redemption and hope, and they express them in all-out powerful post-hardcore rock.
There's clearly an influence from the midwestern emo bands, like Boys Life, Mineral, and others. But Sunday Flood knock it up a few notches, taking those building songs and driving guitars beyond the realm most of those emo bands are willing to go. The first time you hear lead singer Eric Krueger scream, you wonder why he ever sings, but the singing vocals are just as good. And the band is equally comfortable going from the more melodic structures to the all-out intensity in their finest moments.
"Why is Green Grass Like the Mob?" (a question that I don't think is answered in the song) starts off along the lines of your more powerful emo bands, that is until the screaming starts. "I'll suffocate; I can't breathe, I'm drowning. Gone tomorrow, I'll wait today. This ignorance has got to change," starts "A Deaf Purple" at one of their most intensely sung moments on Advisory, and quickly, as the guitars blare away, they transcend to emphatic shouts. "Room 237" is one of the more straight-forward rockers, ala Farewell Bend, but with some fantastic layered and melodic vocals, and they're shouting/screaming from the get-go on "The Vessel," one of the most powerful tracks on the album with lyrics like "Explosings in my head - laughing out loud as I bleed to death."
Starting with some pretty piano, "I Advise Red" has both the pretty melodic guitar and some serious chugging guitar riffs that make for an interesting mix. By the end, Krueger is screaming his guts out. "Myriad" has some fantastic guitar and bass interplay and really a nice flow, and "Broken Predicate" makes great use of textured guitars and a more anthemic sound. The closer, "Hush Falls," is one of my favorite tracks, even at under 2 minutes. Quiet and so pretty, it proves the band could get quiet and introspective. I would have liked to hear another quieter track, maybe in the middle to break up the album, but this does make the perfect ending.
Try as I might, I feel like I'm describing your average emo band. Trust me, Sunday Flood is most definitely not your average, run-of-the-mill emo band. Few bands have the sheer intensity and power of this project, whether singing or screaming, and few can do both so well. This is fantastic stuff, the kind of songs that make you wish the album was twice as long. - Adequacy.net
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