Blaze of Perdition ‘The Harrowing of Hearts’
Album Review By Adam McCann
Metal Blade Records/Black Metal
For Blaze of Perdition (BoP), the last few years have been one of consolidating their stranglehold on the black metal scene. The Polish band delivered one of the albums of their career in 2017 with the barnstorming ‘Conscious Darkness’, when the band announced their return to the studio and the release of ‘The Harrowing of Hearts’ this year, the question was begged; can BoP reach that same height as before?
With ‘Conscious Darkness’, there was a Gothic metal sound lurking away, hidden within the many layers of that excellent album; yet with ‘The Harrowing…’ BoP allow these sounds to fully emerge and at times take centre stage. This takes the bands latest album into a whole new area, coupled with a production that is superb; yes, there is that a-typical black metal wall of sound here, but BoP manage to splice it apart, when that wall hits the listener, they’ll find that it is textured, a real dynamic approach to a standardised black metal delivery that pushes ‘The Harrowing…’ beyond that of its contemporaries. This texture allows the riffs and melodies lain down to really shine, meaning that with this latest BoP album, there is always something to be discovered as tracks like ‘With Madman’s Faith’, ‘Moonchild’ and ‘Suffering Made Bliss’ standing tall as some of the best work BoP have ever recorded.
To answer the question, can ‘The Harrowing…’ reach the same height as before? The answer is most definitely, what BoP have released is a concise album of seven tracks that do exactly what they need to do. This is single handed the most focused album that BoP have ever released and because of this, it may be the best of their career. It is only February, but watch this space, ‘The Harrowing…’ is already a contender for black metal album of the year.
Rating : 89/100
MHF Magazine/Adam McCann
