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.

Ink19

Modern-day melodic emo-rock that’s very much along the lines of Christie Front Drive, Elliott and Sunny Day Real Estate, drifting dreamily along and occasionally building up into rocking parts with desperate, impassioned screams. Sure, they wear their influences on their sleeves but it’s nonetheless cool enough to make me prick up my ears and sniff the air, with enough sleekness and shimmers to catch the interest of all those not quite worn out by the style.

Collective Zine

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 Sun Sea Sky, 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 wih 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.

Delusions Of Adequacy

Sunday Flood have been kicking around Wisconsin for 5 years; with their 3rd album, Advisory, they may finally get some recognition elsewhere. Most of these 12 songs are full of the sort of thick, driving, crunching rock that made “melodic hardcore” and “emotional hardcore” buzzwords back in the mid-’ 90s. Granted, the mid-’ 90s are behind us, and with so many bands playing in the genre now, it’s impossible to stand out as truly unique. Fortunately, Sunday Flood have progressed to the point where style and execution more than compensate for it. Primary vocalist Eric Krueger can be sweet and melodic (and he carries a tune better than 95% of all the indie-rock singers in the world), but isn’t afraid to punctuate the song with a throat-ripping scream here and there. When guitarist Mike Allen isn’t playing catchy U2-like guitar leads, he occasionally steps up to the mic with an abrasive voice that nicely complements Eric’s. Drummer Kevin Ritzke holds it all together with rhythms that are both disciplined and ferocious. Not too many bands in this scene even stay together for five years, so it’s quite an achievement that Sunday Flood have just now recorded their best album yet. Their methods may be tried and true, but the quality of Advisory should put them at the top of the heap.

Action Man Magazine 

Wisconsin’s Sunday Flood clearly know how to put ample amounts of straightforward heavy rock into their songs, and though there is the requisite amount of emotional weariness that invades their music, the general toughness of a few of their tracks along with screams to balance out much of the singing are quite a boost to the band’s overall aura. Thick guitars and a by and large chugging sensibility that at its heaviest leans in the direction of Quicksand (mind you it merely leans) carry the record’s 12 tracks. There isn’t anything on Advisory that is likely to blow your mind; the band represents a wave in current music that seems to be spawning massive amounts of contributors with varying talent, but if you feel like the current state of emo could use some more balls, Sunday Flood seem to be in total agreement. Unfortunately, the record is pretty one dimensional, and if the hard rocking odes to bitterness and longing don’t pull you in from the start there really isn’t a ton more to look forward to. If Advisory had come out a couple of years ago and thrown some of its thunderous edge into a still burgeoning scene, it might have more of an impact, but as is it too often feels like a rehashing of old ideas albeit with ample attitude and louder guitars, it never oversteps its repetitive limitations.

Basement Life