Another take on now hugely popular post black metal genre is in front of us, and it seems blackgaze slowly starts to develop a vicious condition known in post metal genre as “SSDD,” in other words “Same Shit Different Dudes.”
New record coming from Harakiri for the Sky, titled III: Trauma, can indeed be characterized as traumatic; traumatic for your ears, your time and your sense of innovation. Simply put, Trauma lasts too long, doesn’t add anything new to the genre, contains rehashed ideas seen many times before, and is full of obvius tempo changes, repetitive riffs and at times laughable lyrics.
The album starts weak with Calling the Rain, incredibly dull song spanning more that 11 (eleven!) minutes; by the time it ends, you’ll suffer from all kinds of mental traumas. Funeral Dreams and Thanatos (impressive clean vocals appearing mid-song is a great moment, too bad that’s the only time you’ll hear cleans on this record) are two high points where guys from Harakiri for the Sky show their musicianship, show they have good ideas. Said two songs are full of tempo switches, melodic leads, occasional in-your-face black metal, and are incredibly enjoyable.
Sadly, the rest of the album pales in comparison to those songs; Bury Me is also worthy of respect, but the problem is that most listeners just won’t stick ‘till the end since Bury Me is the album closer. The album lasts almost an hour and fifteen minutes, and I just can’t understand why the band decided to do something like that. There are eight songs in total, and without a doubt, at least four of them could’ve been left out from the album. This way, we got a snore fest with an occasional jump in quality, not worthy of time spent listening to the album. Lyrics can be really childish at times:
Tonight I'll get so terribly drunk
I'll lapse into coma
For fuck's sake
I'll drink myself into oblivion
'Cause the only way
To forget about you
Is to deafen all senses
Until deadness eventuates
Fuck this life
Fuck my life
Or this:
This world
Made me an alcoholic
This world
Makes me wanna die
In my sleep
This world
Made me a junkie
Dyed-in-the-wool
This world
Made me a razor-eater
A homeless fool
During almost every listen, I wished New Bermuda would somehow magically appeared on the playlist, banishing this album for good, granting me salvation. At least production is spot-on; guitars, drums, and vocals are mixed perfectly, and vocals are a joy to listen to. But, ultimately, III: Trauma hit way off the center. At least new Alcest should come out soon (and it should have screams again, yay!), I just hope it’ll be more enjoyable than this post-black fail.
