"Our music is ugly, dark, brutal and melodic," says downthesun vocalist, Aaron Peltz and dammit, he means it. downthesun (one word: all lower case letters) is a face-forward plunge to the underbelly of everything true, they don't pull punches and tell exactly how they see it. Their self-titled Roadrunner debut is a loud and heavy nu-metal arsenal of anger driven music that brings up the blood pressure to dangerous capacities. With shredding guitars, fast insane beats, twisted lyrics, throat ripping growls and sudden bursts of melody and electronics downthesun is bringing the pain in more ways than one.

With six members, (singers, Aaron & Sa-tone, bassist Kuk, Sample operator Church, drummer Dan Spain & guitarist Bruce Swink) which are supposedly divided by good and evil, they aim to create music that we'll pull the listener into all different directions and second guess their second guess. "The personalities in the band are different," admits Aaron, one of the two singers who front the band. "Like, me and Sa-tone (co-vocalist), we're different. He's got a real evil side, he's into his thing, man and he writes about things that I don't necessarily agree on and he may not agree with what I'm writing and we will say that in our lyrics." This odd structure creates a unique dynamic, which manifests itself into the devil and angel arguing over your shoulder. "I say what I mean, if he's talking about doing drugs or something I'll come back and say that you gotta watch out with drugs, they'll kill ya.. I think it's cool this way, it balances out who we are, it's the real world man, you can't have good without evil."

While they may disagree on many levels the one common bond, he says is "to just get out there and bring the hardest music we can to the people."

Downthesun was discovered by Slipknot percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan who first caught wind of downthesun a few years ago, and he didn't have to look far - downthesun vocalist Sa-Tone used to be Clown's drum tech. Once Crahan heard the band play he knew that he wanted to work with them and help them any way possible. He soon signed on and co-produced the album with GGGarth Richardson (Mudvayne, RATM, Spineshank); and oversaw all the artwork for their debut album as well. "He's a real artist, man," says Aaron, "One of the things he really wanted to do was our artwork for the album and we let him run with it. The shit he came up with is pretty weird (laughs)"

Crahan really believes in downthesun and the honesty they convey through their lyrics which is why he often refers to the band as "The Truth". "It's cus' we're fat, we're ugly, and we're not up there on stage trying to be pretty," explains Aaron, "we play the music that we like just cus' we like it, we're gonna say what we mean and say what we think and that's 'The Truth' to us. We don't do this for radio cus' once you do that it's fake."

Currently, downthesun is gearing up for their tour with Soulfly. "We bring a lot of energy and a lot of aggression, it's raw, man." Says Aaron, "we're not out trying to do some gimmick thing, we just get out on stage and turn it up and start slammin'" downthesun is currently on tour with Slayer & Soulfly. For tour info and more on downthesun log to: www.downthesun.com

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