Austrians Harakiri For The Sky have released their eighth studio album, Scorched Earth, on Friday (24th) via AOP Records. With seven songs and two bonus tracks, the duo composed of M.S. (guitar, bass, and songwriting) and J.J. (voice and lyrics) for this installment, they shine by adding varied sounds to their songs that also feature guest artists such as Tim Yatras (Austere), Serena Cherry (Svalbarduk) and Daniel Lang (Backwards Charm).
In Scorched Earth, you can feel a renewed power that appears in each song, starting with “Heal Me,” where the somber instrumentality and agonizing vocal screams are accompanied by a soft and melodic echo in the background that makes it incredible. As the first track, it is an anticipation of heartbreaking lyrics full of melancholy, as they know how to do since the beginning of their career. From the accelerated guitars and unstoppable percussion, we move on to one of the most beautiful introductions of the album. “Keep Me Longing,” the black and white keys did their job, creating the necessary expectation to generate a feeling of anguish that rushes away as it explodes in the voice and the other instruments.
“Without You I’m Just A Sad Song” enters like a lullaby that plunges you into a trance to open a path to another dimension. The tonalities here feel more vibrant with cheerful in chords as the lyrics remain dark. A very post-rock style melody is intercepted by the heavy guitar and the harmonious keyboard in a composition that shows a new facet from the duo. Another entrance along the slow path accompanies “No Graves But The Sea” until hitting the drumsticks that inject power into what at first glance appears to be a taciturn ballad. That rich mix of guitar riffs, drum beats, and screamo-type vocals make Harakiri For The Sky always a winning formula for the ears.
Each song in this new work is a world of its own. Throughout the album, they become linked to each other. “With Autumn I’ll Surrender” corresponds to the first single released, which was accompanied by a video that says it all and leaves every nerve across the body electrified.
The nine minutes of “I Was Just Another Promise You Couldn’t Keep” is another twist of energy filled with surprises, with histrionic musical colors that seem to flow between darkness and light, trapping each note. It is not easy to talk about a broken heart through the torn pen of a writer who struggles not to break with it, but when he manages to do so, all that anger, sorrow, nostalgia, and resistance to believing are transferred through the musical craft. It’s just that sometimes we are experts at breaking ourselves.
The album closes with “Too Late For Goodbyes,” ft Selena Cherry, which maintains the constant tone of the album without big surprises but is extremely well executed. Dark, disturbing, and highly addictive. As for the bonus tracks, the first of them corresponds to a cover of Street Spirit (Fade Out) (feat. P.G. of GROZA) by the band Radiohead, quite interesting to be a flirtation with grunge and the second is Elysian Fields (feat. Daniel Lang / Backwards Charm) which is loaded with more modern rock and soft voices that makes it strangely attractive.
Scorched Earth is an invitation to those lands of lament and dark melancholy to which we have been accustomed for more than a decade with notable sound improvements and extraordinary melodic incursions that integrate light into this meticulous work. Each track has a powerful message, and Harakiri For The Sky is an expert at conveying it. The hypnotic game between the melodic and the confusion of black metal in rhythmic harmony from the beginning to the end of the record ends with a surprise that opens paths to another future without so many shadows. The major chords may dance with each other, but the minor chords will pick them up as they fall.