Getting a Harakiri For The Sky record release in the heart of winter will pull at your heartstrings. Scorched Earth (AOP Records) does just that for over an hour and doesn’t overstay its welcome. It is an audible voyage through pain, suffering, and loss that is both cathartic and beautiful. Every song has its own story and emotional journey that compliments the songs around it. Oh, and there’s also a sweet Radiohead cover at the end to ice the cake.
The opening track is an immediate call for help from an isolated and depressed point of view as the song builds and builds in intensity. “Heal Me” sets the bar so high from the get-go on Scorched Earth with its rollercoaster ride of emotions and cries of agony sung by the guitars and keyboard/piano sections.
“Keep Me Longing” hits next with a ten-minute tearjerker. The guitar leads in this song cut deep, making you feel the desperation of the lyrics telling a story of loss and still holding pieces of that loss to remember. Like the first track, there are progressions, raising of tempo and intensity, that lead to sections of black metal before cooling back off.
The most hard-hitting track on Scorched Earth, “With Autumn I’ll Surrender”, hits all of the notes that I resonate with deeply. The torment of watching the leaves fall and the sun being up less every day is painted very much on the nose. Even the opening lyrics are quite deliberate:
“As autumn sets fire to days, we can no longer hold on. We are burning in water, steadily drowning in flames”
This track utilizes more keyboard/piano parts, but with the rest of the band, illustrating memorable harmonies, wishing for summer to last a little longer. There’s a rest point almost three minutes in with an acoustic spot and a seemingly folk-metal harmony that remains when the distortion is kicked back on.
Harakiri For The Sky continues to be a front-runner in the post-black metal world with this record. Scorched Earth will be replaying through most of this year and I imagine I am not alone.
Buy the album here:
https://shop.aoprecords.de/
9 / 10
TIM LEDIN
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