Stream Black Breath’s Entire New Album Slaves Beyond Death Right Now!

Daaaaaamn, you guys! The two songs we’ve heard from the new Black Breath album Slaves Beyond Death so far have been absolutely amazing; pummeling, gross, gnarly, all that. But now we get to hear the album in full and it’s not AT ALL what I was expecting… in the best possible way!

Invisible Oranges writer Joseph Schafer surmises that this album’s strengths lie in its expansion beyond Black Breath’s “Entombedcore” roots, and I think he’s 100% on the money. I liked Black Breath’s past work well enough, but it always had limited appeal to me because of how heavily it relied on a foundation of hardcore, a genre I’m not especially enamored with in its purest form. This time around Black Breath are bringing in capital-M Metal influences, and you can hear it right from the start. The intro of opening track “Chains of the Afterlife” is pure Pantera. The twin guitar leads later on in the track are clearly inspired by Ride the Lightning-era Metallica. The verse riff in “A Place of Insane Cruelty” borders on southern sludge. And so on and so forth. The hardcore+Entombed foundation Black Breath laid on their previous two albums works a lot better when it’s spiced up with all these additional influences; it’s a more complete, well-rounded meal.

Stream Slaves Beyond Death below. A+++++ WDBWA… I think this one will end up high on my year-end list! The album drops September 25th through Southern Lord and can be ordered here.