Artist description "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." ***** Delusions of Adequacy

Music Style Rock

Similar Artists Hum, Engine Down, Alligator Gun, Texas Is The Reason, Samiam

Artist History Sunday Flood was formed on Thanksgiving Day, 1995 in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Group Members Mike Allen, Eric Krueger, Timm Horn, Eric Layendecker

Albums [Advisory - 2001 - 12 song CD - Sun.Sea.Sky Productions] ***** [Velvet Is Falling - 1999 - 7 song CD EP - Sun.Sea.Sky Productions] ***** [Quietball/KDK12 - 1997 - 2 song seven inch - No Karma Recordings] ***** [Galaxy - 1996 - 10 song CD - Wagg 10 Records]

Press Reviews "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 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." - 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 ***** "Sunday Flood's previous release Velvet is Falling was a solid ep of melodic post hardcore combined with chiming U2-like guitar work. This ep did have its moments of low grade TNT explosiveness, but some songs seemed to suffer from uninspired, middle of the road emo instrumentation. Sunday Flood's debut LP Advisory concentrates the scattered energy of the previous ep, making this an album with the blasting power of a nuclear warhead. This energy comes from a more aggressive approach in the guitar playing. "Broken Predicate" opens this CD with choppy guitar discordance thick as a cloud of vaporized lead, sounding much like a more ferocious version of Giant's Chair. The presence of the U2-like guitar work has been carried over to this album, though it is not as obvious. Amidst the distorted rhythmic churning of "A Deaf Purple" is a droning guitar track which sounds like The Edge playing from within the confines of an empty grain silo. Lyrically, Sunday Flood seems to make a number of spiritual references, such as in "Room 237": "Failing my worst Jesus Crutch/Turning my doubts to the light" But this is not pure "God Rock", and Sunday Flood is not pushing a religious agenda with their music. The lyrics on this album seem to deal with coming to grips with different aspects of life such as relationships and personal change. Spirituality is just one aspect, and the words are delivered honestly, and with enough abstraction to keep them from sounding like they are being read from the pages of someone's pathetic journal. While some bands expend their energy trying to fit into what is currently popular, Sunday Flood has dedicated their efforts into creating an album that is sincere both lyrically and musically. Advisory effectively distances Sunday Flood from the minor clichés that held the previous ep back. With unwavering percussive guitar abrasion and impassioned lyrics, Advisory looks past the trappings of what is cool, but rather inward, into the type of music and ideas that the musicians truly feel." - Rocket Fuel Online ***** "I will be quite modest and say I suck at reviews, the first thing is do is try to compare it to something i have heard. This gives me a point of reference at least, and i am tired of reading reviews that sound like poems and make the music out to be something way more than it isn't. keep it simple i say. Ok, enough of this diatribe, let's review the cd. Sunday Flood is a very melodic pop band with a bit of an edge to it. i was trying to think what is sounded like for awhile, the closest i could come up with was samiam, clumsy era. it isn't as great as clumsy, but its pretty good, i actually listened to it straight through twice. i didn't find anything that i could make fun of either. it doesn't fall into that emo pop sound, like all those terrible bands, saves the day and newfound glory ect...i could also go on a limb to compare it to newer grade and thursday, but there is a bit more pop involved. anyone who knows jack on this site, i think he would really like it." - Seven Five 0 ***** "While I was listening to this record today I was surfing around on the web, mostly looking for information about the record and/or band. The Sun Sea Sky site seems to be fucked up, so I went to the site for No Karma, their one-time twin identity. After I downloaded the image for the cover (I'm so anti-scanner, and I don't know why) I clicked around in their $hop and then, for the hell of it, went to their press section. Turns out that Lost At Sea has reviewed favorably most of the No Karma releases. But, other than the Curbside Journal record, I rarely listen to No Karma stuff. I start to wonder why. And then I start to think about other records that I in some instances own but don't listen to. Right away I'm thinking about Sunday Flood, and their sophomore output, Advisory. As you may have noticed, I also reviewed their full length debut, which I do still own (I like the packaging as much as the record). Unfortunately, I don't really remember listening to it much after reviewing it, so I can't say if I would still agree with the review or not. At the present time, listening to Advisory, I wonder if I wasn't being a bit too harsh. Sunday Flood definitely has a major-label, high-octane frat-rock edge to their sound. They're pretty aggressive and have a lot of songs that I could see playing in the background of a Junior High skate video. I think the bands I referenced the first time around were likely very accurate, but for some reason on this album they come off more like a heavier, more underground style of music. Unlike most of the crappy alt-punk stuff I hear, there is a definite hardcore influence to Sunday Flood's sound and it actually combines well with the melodic guitar work of their subconscious in a way that Helmet would be proud of. They mix it with some more spacey, European indie rock ideas and come up with something that is incredibly listen-able all the way through. They do it so well, in fact, that it is often hard to feel the difference between the best part of a Deftones/Unbroken moment and the most embarrassing of a Pantera/Hot Water Music moment. When "The Vessel" changes from Incubus style space-grunge instrumental introduction to a more choppy, shouting pace, for instance, the focus shifts completely but the listener's interest isn't terribly disturbed. It's still pretty good, but not blowing you away. I guess my only complaint is that it's not incredibly original and I just wish I didn't have to compare them to someone. At least they're still around, growing and staying clear of the emo cliché's. I'm telling ya' - there's hope for these guys." - Aversion.com ***** "Asking the typical indie kid if he remembers Hum is a question that’s probably as useless as asking the average third-grader if they know about Pokemon, so any band that bears any sort of similarity to the legendary Champaign, Ill., post-hardcore act is probably going to fare well, at least on a small scale. Sunday Flood’s in that very position with Advisory. Though the band never achieves the similarities of many junior-varsity Hums do to their icons – it doesn’t even try – anyone savvy enough to know more than just "Counting Stars" will have an easy time getting his arms around this album. Though similar, the band manages to keep enough distance between its own identity and that of Hum to make Advisory a good postscript to the guitar-worshipping indie rock of the ’90s. With the casual mix of reckless abandon and tender melodies perfected in Champaign last decade, Sunday Flood launches into an exhilarating barrage of riffs on this album. With the tidal ebb and flow of guitar and bass combinations alongside the spray of crashing cymbal washes, Advisory breaks it down with enough noise to please even the staunchest guitar-rock fans. Whether the band takes moody guitar figures and builds them up to a clattering roar of distortion and rabbit-punch crash cymbals ("The Vessel"), or launches into pearls of guitar and tommy-gun rhythms from the get go ("Taking Precaution Badly"), there’s no attempt to tone down the band’s heavy guitars.Sunday Flood isn’t a token Hum rip off, however. While the band’s arrangement and love for near anarchy in its melodies may suggest that, the band’s vocal tracks reveal its closer affiliation to the post-hardcore scene than anything to spring from the indie world. Even at their most restrained, singer Eric Krueger’s vocal tracks strain against the melodies he smashes them into. When he unloads, it’s with the larynx-abusing roar of acts like Snapcase. While the band never quite crosses the line into hard-assed extreme post-rock, it’s a spot that’s always on the horizon on this album.No matter how good Sunday Flood comes off as on this album, they’re ultimately playing with someone else’s style at this point. It’s a good showing, though the Hum allusions make this record a little too derivative to make much of a dent outside that world." - Lost At Sea

Location Appleton, WI - USA

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