Virginia-based Pontiak showcase their heavy but slow sludge rock sound on Sun on Sun, which seems to be one of those neither-one-nor-the-other mini-album projects. Although this is a record built almost entirely around a fairly conventional guitar-based rock setup, there are lots of faces to the band displayed here - opener "Shell Skull" is a brooding, methodical slow-builder which vaguely brings to mind Black Sabbath, but immediately following it is "Swell", a curious but ultimately pretty redundant instrumental piece which sounds a bit like what I would imagine being stuck in a U-boat during a depth charge attack would sound like - there's something very nautical and yet mechanical about it, it's like a jam at crush depth. Some vague psychadelic elements are in evidence in places, too - the title track is a 9-minute epic with some intriguing and quite philosophical lyrics. "White Hands" starts off with a subdued but still punk-like rumbling canter, but soon drops this taut focus in favour of a much slower, wriggling trawl. This music seems to be all about sustained, yet low-level menace - Pontiak don't so much rock out as slowly grind along, sounding powerful but not always as purposeful as you'd hope.The closing track "The Brush Burned Fast" surprises us with its sudden appearance of acoustic guitar, which makes a dramatic contrast with the rest of the record. The vocals here are clearer, too - it's a major change in direction. After the song is over, we're left with an odd feeling. There's something quite affecting about Sun on Sun, especially after repeated listens. It's not easy listening by any means, but there are some very interesting ideas at play here. 71%Pontiak on MySpace