Albums That Will #$@&%*! Your Face Off in 2018: Harakiri for the Sky, Arson
It’s a new year, and you know what that means — it’s time for MetalSucks’ eighth annual new year preview, Albums That Will #$@&%*! Your Face Off! As with previous years, we won’t be spotlighting all the great releases coming out this year, but, rather, concentrating on lesser-known bands whose new releases might otherwise escape your attention. Look for these posts by assorted MetalSucks staffers throughout the week. We hope you enjoy ‘em!
Harakiri for the Sky
Arson (AOP)
February 16
“Post-black metal” mostly means “post-interesting” these days, but occasionally a dark cloud obscures the light. Harakiri for the Sky articulate their melancholy using the tragic template set by genre titans Agalloch and Drudkh. This Austrian group are one of those dynamic duos where one guy screams and the other guy does everything else, but screaming guy (known only by the initials “JJ”) more than carries his weight. It can be hard to wrench emotion out of a harsh bellow – especially as a counterpoint to Matthias Sollak’s ornate instrumentation – but the musicians complement each other beautifully.
Arson is the follow-up to 2016’s III: Trauma. As the title implies, it’s not much more cheerful. With song titles like “The Graves We’ve Dug,” “You Are the Scars,” and “Heroin Waltz,” they deal with some weighty topics. Still, this isn’t funeral doom. While definitely a downer, the sweeping scope of the guitars create sprigs of hope that spring up like flowers on a battlefield. It feels more direct than its predecessor, and that, according to JJ, was the intent.
“To us, doing Arson was like a clearance. And as the title already suggests, our intention was to burn everything to the ground, musically as well as lyrically. It’s not until everything is burnt and only ash remains, we can resow new seeds and crop bountiful harvest from a convalesced soil. Arson symbolizes all that and more.”
If you’re feeling pyromaniacal, go ahead and preorder it here. In the meantime, you can prepare for despair by checking out “Tomb Omnia” below.
