Harakiri For the Sky : "Scorched Earth"

The last album from this German band was more hard-core than their atmospheric beginnings, s one leans a little more into a more anguished shade of metal.  There have been blurbs exclaiming how melancholy, bleak, and depressive this album is, that is all an exaggeration.  The bar for depression is pretty high here, so this might end up being too happy for me, though the first song feels pretty middle-of-the-road in this regard. The vocals begin leaning more in a coarse hard-core shout for the second song, which has a more sonic brightness. The guitars do build things in a more black metal direction as the song climaxes. 

They straddle the fence again between metallic hard-core in the aggression they attack "Without You I'm Just a Sad Song" with, though the keyboards, provide a layer of melody and atmosphere anchors things in a more metal direction, though I am not sure I would call it black metal as there is too much for a hopeful shimmer, yet it still works as a song. "No Graves But Sea" finds the more hard-core energy pushing the song forward with great enthusiasm, as once again empowered hopefulness runs through the sound, this is balanced out with an Opeth-like sense of nuance to the playing without crossing over into prog. But we have full-on gang vocals chiming in for anyone who doubts this is not hard-core when the drummer tries to play like he is in a black metal band. 

"With Autumn I'll Surrender" crosses over in the more progressive direction. The vocals are shouted on the verse, as things become increasingly melodic. It is the album's most accessible moment so far, but it is really well written so that balances things out. Folk melodies ring out in the background. "I Was Just Another Promise You Couldn't Keep" makes me think of the more emotional hardcore of the early 2000s mixed with European metal. This goes into a triumphant halftime groove, that is not dark in any way. Though it is catchy. There is also some dynamic ebb and flow, however nothing really groundbreaking. 

"Too Late For Goodbyes" has melodic female vocals in a bridge that break things up, but the song flows along a very similar formula to what we have already heard from these guys. They pull off a pretty good cover of Radiohead's "Street Spirit(Fade Out)". I'll give this album a 9, as it reaches an excellent compromise of the many sides of the band's sounds they have explored over the years, but serving the songs here first and foremost. It is not a black metal album, if you think it is, then please come back next month, when the entire month is dedicated to black metal, so you can learn what it is. 

7.6

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