As an atmospheric Black Metal duo with a wide range of influences ranging from Crust to post-Metal, the Sweden-based Black Birch manage to keep both the classical and contemporary nuances of their sounds intact. Being the progressive, anti-fascist black metal act that they are, human nature and humans’ place and effect on earth become some of the recurring major themes in their songwriting. 

The two-piece unit of Gina Wiklund and Ulf Blomberg encompasses many forms of structural struggle against all sorts of oppressive systems that are crushing mankind inside and out– of course, with the release of their self-titled EP which is in co-releasing with Fiadh Productions from the U.S. and Vita Detestabilis Records from Spain. This self-titled release will have its own vinyl format in two varieties; gold with black screen print and black with gold screen print.

The song titles represent and express the discourse of stream of life in the form of an EP. To mankind, the stream of life is a never-ending circle. The “Soil” and “Fallen” here refer to how humans will end up returning to the soil from where we were given, as we fall and die. In contrast, the “Birth” and “Death” here refer to how the said soil can in return give birth to a new life and incur a constant limbo between life and death; the enablement of a new human life, at the same time, causes the destruction of the earth which means countless deaths. 

By fusing multiple forms of atmospheric harmonies with heavy midsections and an intensely passionate vocal attack, Black Birch managed to ignite incendiary-like sounds that successfully defies conventional standards. Even though they try to keep the classic black metal elements intact, they also unravel their own kind of innovation in a modern approach. The purest form of black metal-themed blast beats of course does exist as an embodiment of their feelings of contempt that they convey through the intrinsic themes of this album.

There might already be a myriad of atmospheric black metal bands releasing stuff here and there recently, but not many possess inherently strong, progressive values like Black Birch do, and it’s one of the reasons to definitely check them out.

Buy the EP here:

https://fiadh.bandcamp.com/album/black-birch

8 / 10

RALKA SKJERSETH