Post-Metal

Harakiri For The Sky set the post-metal canons to kill for their new epic melodic Black Metal album, Mære.

The band is Matthias Sollak, who plays all the instruments, and V. Wahntraum (JJ) who does the singing. Mære is the fifth full-length album for Harakiri For The Sky since 2012, an impressive production schedule by itself, the significance of which is magnified when you consider the other bands the musicians are part of. The music has a post-metal approach generally, and you can hear melodic Black Metal in there prominently alongside many other melded styles and takes. The themes tend toward the glum, with a heavy dose of hopelessness to season the brew.

The album is gigantic, with ten long songs averaging in the eight minute range. “I, Pallbearer” opens the set, and could function as a single because it is a look through the window at what the album is about. The first thing you hear is a plucking line, then a solid riff that is a melody line of its own. The music fills in over the leading sixty seconds and then the hammer comes down with the introduction of vocals, followed by an even bigger build in the percussion. The song is complex and carefully structured, giving it a Prog ambience to go along with the broader arc of melodic Black Metal. Expect this throughout.

There is a lot to admire in this album. My favorite tracks (along with the opener) are “And Oceans Between” us for the raw energy and emotion it exudes and “Time Is A Ghost” with its elegant, gentle beginning that is swallowed by a landslide of crushing metal only to survive, reëmerge, and then be overtaken again. Mære is an album you will return to over and again in different mental states and for different reasons. Recommended.

Friday February 19^th is the official release date, and AOP Records has the goods, accessible through Bandcamp. Five of the songs are already available if you want to get a jump on it with a digital preorder.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://artofpropaganda.bandcamp.com/album/maere

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/HarakiriForTheSky/

AOP Records, http://www.aoprecords.de/

The follow-up to A Dawn To Fear (2019) is a thirty-eight minute EP that is in many ways a continuation of that music.

Twenty years in and Cult of Luna is getting more confident and accomplished with every passing annum. The band from Umeå, Sweden has released seven full-length albums, many live records, splits, singles, and EPs – the enormity of their catalogue is imposing. Their stylistic orientation is a progressive advance, a sort of post-hardcore, post-metal that is genuinely more of a brew than a mixture, giving them the opportunity to expand and contract at will. The Metal Archives lists the current band members as Johannes Persson (vocals and guitar), Magnus Lindberg (guitar and percussion), Fredrik Kihlberg (guitar and vocals), Andreas Johansson (bass), Kristian Karlsson (keys and vocals), and Thomas Hedlund (drums).

There are five songs on The Raging River, three of which run over eight minutes. “Three Bridges” breaks the ice with four descending, forlorn, echoing notes, repeated into the air until an industrial clanging beats in, joined by allied and opposing instruments in due course. The vocal lands in a strained ravening. The elements that might seem discordant, alien to each other form a collective meaning when brought expertly together in willful composition. “What I Leave Behind” runs like a second movement to the first song, and the soft vocals of the bridge piece, “Inside of a Dream,” reminds us of the beauty and the sadness in the world.

“I Remember” and “Wave After Wave” are the joint anchors, and they lead off with a towering wall of sound that pushes you back and makes you vulnerable to the vocal instrument that arrives just after. More ponderous and menacing now, the music is an effective deliverance of the heartfelt description from the beginning of the set. Powerful and recalcitrant in the sense of follow-through, the music reveals to you the weight of your own mind through example. Meaning that is unique to you emerges from the music as you listen.

The album is out now. There are many vinyl options to choose from – or at least there used to be, as they are selling briskly. There is always the download option if you missed out on the physical. Recommended.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://cultofluna.bandcamp.com/album/the-raging-river

Website, https://www.cultofluna.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/cultoflunamusic

Red Creek, https://red-crk.com/

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Harakiri For the Sky, Mære (AOP Records 2021)

Cult Of Luna, The Raging River (Red Creek Recordings 2021)