This is a very interesting band. An atmospheric black metal band from Indonesia, there is a Ukrainian element in the form of the drummer who was with the admirable White Ward, and some guitar elements. This band has been around since 2014, and is now releasing its third album. This album has the harrowing theme of a mother whose son was murdered in the 1965 Indonesian genocide and has had to live with this.

This is a powerful album. “Clock of Disquiet” goes through several movements, starting with symphonic melancholy but soon the storm clouds gather and fluid progressive black metal fury erupts, punctuated by a sinister spoken passage. The mood is that of horror. This turned to the intensity of “Years of Silence”, referring to the 50 years of silence and sadness which the mother had to endure. In the fire and fury there is layer upon layer of melancholy, heightened by the subtle orchestral elements. The impact is devastating. Choral majesty enters the scene in “Presages from a Restless Soul”, another highly charged emotive piece of heaviness. The sound mix is superb, heightening the deep and epic soundscape. The skill of this album is not just its emotive and heavy intensity but its subtle transformations between blackened fury and acoustic passages without being contrived. All the while this hymn to the woeful hearts, an entirely apt title, drives forward. From “Footprints of the Lost Child” we move on to the grandiose and epic “Those Who Stand Still”. Fittingly the album ends with the sorrowful and sombre “Hymn to the Woeful Hearts”.

This album is full of dark ambience, reflecting the tragedy of its subject. Musically it doesn’t really leave the same place until the final title piece, but the passages, which have a progressive black metal element about them in their transforming fury and suffering, are always powerful and atmospheric. “Hymn to the Woeful Hearts” is an accomplished work.

(8.5/10 Andrew Doherty)

https://www.facebook.com/purewrath

https://purewrath.bandcamp.com/album/hymn-to-the-woeful-hearts