Harakiri For The Sky do post black metal like no one else and I’ve not come across a release yet that I’ve failed to enjoy more than the last. Yes, the early releases are excellent and obviously a great icebreaker for anyone from extreme metal generally to a band that seems to play so easily on the Venn diagram intersection of several scenes – post-hardcore with an undeniable crusty edge – and make it sound so easy. As time has gone by the machine has become more well-oiled, the layered riffs breaking like the arrival of an extreme weather event and the acoustic moments filtering through to temper the moment as if the sun were reaching through darkened, rolling clouds. III: Trauma was probably the template for the past three albums, including this one it seems, and was a true exploration of the band’s sound while Arson was a version of that sound polished to an incredible, blinding sheen. The band – as I’ve said before, one with a formula so dazzlingly well apportioned that someone would need to invent it if it didn’t exist – has pulled out all the stops to top that yet again with Mære.
One of the things I really like about this release is that the band has clearly decided to issue forth the full force of its sound in the manner in which it was meant to be done. Extended tracks – ten of them – all but one coming in at between 7 and 11 minutes which is more or less perfect for this kind of atmospheric overload of an album that lets Harakiri’s back-beating percussive genius and knack for subtly addictive melodies wash over you. Not so good if you’ve got a pressing engagement or need something easily digestible to slap on while you’re having a shit, shower and a shave before you go out on the town – back when such things were even possible. No, Mære turns the angst to the max in full sympathy with your battered emotions while gently giving your deepest innards a gentle aural massage with plucked acoustics – providing some soul healing rather than just tearing it apart.
Harakiri delivers this all with enthralling tightness with little thought for segueing from sparkling, drifting moments and thrusting us into a windswept vortex of multiple riffage and JJ’s hoarse accompaniment. Harakiri is a band to immerse yourself in, a band for the right kind of mood at the right time of day. Personally, I dearly love those racing opening tracks, the teasing tremolos; the haunting, echoing intros; the way the band seamlessly lay pianos into tracks like Silver Needle / Golden Dawn. But most of all I like all the times I can’t quite work out whether – some of the lyrics aside – I’m listening to a band that’s actually a sublime, ambient experience disguised as a heavy metal band rather than something that’s spun off the hardcore and black metal scenes. A perfectly matched songwriter and vocalist that sincerely know what it’s like to be – at least at times – let down by life, pissed off to the core and looking for someone, anyone who gives a shit to sit with for a while.
Another masterpiece by the band that I can’t actually say is better or worse than the last album (although Fire, Walk With Me was always going to be hard to top, the first three tracks of Mære are all pretty breath-taking). But this is a band that so obviously hit its stride three albums in and has continued to pour so many delicately imagined ingredients into this latest platter that I can’t really fault them for it. This is one I’ve thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish and a rare band that always seems to deliver just what you need and that little bit extra each time, five albums in. No Mære here. More like a bloody welcome dream at this point in 2021.
(9/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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