2023-10-10 10:46:55
In retrospect, the appearance at the Midgardsblot Festival distracts from the fact that Jon Krieger alias Sgah’gahsowáh is there Blackbraid II practically fulfills all the promises that the debut album couldn’t keep last year.
Album number 2, with a playing time of 66 minutes, does this in a way that is too detailed (whereas the overall construction is too half-baked Blackbraid I still felt like an EP) because, strictly speaking, the record has a few lengths and could have been shortened in many places to get to the point.
However, this, at least relatively speaking, is the biggest point of criticism (as well as subjectively identifiable points of discussion: for example the production that is too clean, but really powerfully gripping; the fundamentally hardly original stylistic positioning in the melodic black metal slipstream of Agalloch and the one at the end, behind the actually ideal, because absolutely round, final point Sadness and the Passage of Time and Memory even covered Bathory; or the fact that the guttural-doomy growl tendencies in Moss Covered Bones on the Altar of the Moon would have liked to have been more than just briefly hinted at – but that matters Twilight Hymn of Ancient Blood later with a wonderfully thrashy finish!) only to a limited extent in the increased weight.
From the acoustic folklore intro Autumnal Hearts Ablaze and the one who furiously takes over the topic and throws it out with muscle The Spirit Returns makes away Blackbraid II with hymn-like, melodic arcs, spitting so poisonous and immediately catchy with consistently high qualities, in any case really everything better than its predecessor, has a harmonious overall flow with intense dynamics, is bursting with a feeling of immanent epicness – the guitars in particular always outdo themselves with heroic motifs, The nasty vocals also have an aggressive bite, the rhythm section creates a thrilling drive.
And where the performance is flawless, the songwriting is also structurally more sophisticated, more variable, and extremely entertaining, while the native aspect, which has been assimilated in terms of sound technology, has long since shed all the gimmicks, and not just in intermezzos that are explicitly aimed at it Spells of Moon and Earth or Celestial Passage to be worn more explicitly, but also in forays like A Song of Death on Winds of Dawn is woven in very atmospherically and deepens the character of the record.
So may discussions elsewhere about the authenticity of Blackbraidabout cultural stereotypes and the role of the production studios in the hype surrounding the one-man project, these actually miss the point per se: Blackbraid II Regardless of all the background noise, it is actually one of the real genre highlights of 2023, and it is being proclaimed almost everywhere.
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