Formed in the spring of 2022 in Blansko in the Czech Republic, Macocha (pronounced ‘ma-tso-kha’ and named after the deepest abyss in central Europe) released their self-titled debut album in 2024. Right from the beginning they were focussed on following their own path, forging their own identity and not giving a damn if that made it hard for people to file them under some convenient genre definition. Their music is fierce, dark, impassioned and angry…vivid, vibrant, aflame with emotion and punishingly heavy. They draw on whatever sounds are needed to bring their songs to life – from black metal, from hardcore, from death metal, sludge, doom – there are no boundaries or limitations for Macocha. And now they have returned with their second album; another descent into darkness delivered in their inimitable style, pushing further, digging deeper – harder, heavier, more hauntingly melodic, more emotionally honest, raw and bloody. This is Pale Heart…
“Let me face the darkness, one final time…”
– ‘Till The Darkness Takes Me’ – Macocha
After a momentary held breath of feedback Pale Heart explodes into life with ‘Idiocracy’s raging power and blackened fury. But ‘Idiocracy’ is never content to remain a single faceted creation as it settles into a slow grinding, HM2 powered riff, then segues into a vein of richly melodic melancholy. There’s hammering heaviness, irresistible hooks, undeniable darkness, weight, force, grit and attitude. ‘Idiocracy’ morphs and transforms, progresses in whatever way it needs to tell its story and reveal its true self – setting the pattern for all that is yet to come. Each song has a unique character, from the rumbling darkness and insidious sense of threat that crawls through title track, ‘Pale Heart’, where the massive chords hit you like a physical blow, to the deep shadows and deeper despair of ‘Till The Darkness Takes Me’, a tale of nihilistic defiance in the burning ruins of the world, built with hardcore strength and attitude. ‘Here Be Lions’ is simply immense, with a stunning lyric from a father to his child. The honesty of emotion, that expression of desperate love, fear and self-doubt, gives the track a breathtaking raw power. Macocha bring incredible musicality to all their finely crafted songs, with that inherent sense of melody and structure never lost in the incendiary blaze of anger and intensity. When Pale Heart ends with ‘Requiem For The World’, a funeral procession that becomes an uncontrollable inferno with riff after riff erupting from the blackened soil, colliding and exploding, the impression it leaves is indelible. This is an album for these desperate times in which we live, an album that cannot, must not, be ignored. You will encounter few albums as real and vital as this in your lifetime.
“What have we done to each other and what have we done to the world?”
– Requiem For The World – Macocha
Recorded at the Kohlekeller Studio in Germany, with the band’s own Adam Rolny handling production duties, Pale Heart was then mixed by Kristian Kohlmannslehner (Aborted, Benighted, Crematory etc) and Daniel Claar (Agathodaimon, Cuttered Flesh, Cytotoxin etc), with Kohlmannslehner also taking charge of the mastering. The result of this collaborative effort is an album that sounds utterly enveloping – trapping the listener in its desolate kingdom of destruction and consuming them. Pale Heart will be released on vinyl, cassette and digital formats on October 23rd.
“We never wanted to sound like anyone else.”
– Adam Rolny, Macocha
Line up:
Adam Rolny – Vocals/Guitars
David Krejci – Guitars
Josef Novak – Bass
Milos Janak – Drums
Genre: Post Black/Death/Hardcore
For fans of: Oathbreaker | Harms Way | Svartkonst
More information about Macocha at IPR here
Further information:
https://linktr.ee/macochametalhttps://www.instagram.com/macochametal
https://www.facebook.com/macochametal
https://www.youtube.com/@macochametal
https://macocha.bandcamp.com/
