This is a tale of two very different bands, both inspired by the now fairly broad subgenre of black metal. This week, I reviewed promos for SHADOWFLAG (SF) and URN. After making notes on the latter, I decided that I needed a "transition track" to get me into the right headspace for reviewing SHADOWFLAG. I chose "Christ Clad in White Phosphorous" by CAÏNA, perhaps because it had the similar bleak, somewhat off-kilter vibe that appears in SHADOWFLAG's music.

While URN tends towards an old-school, blackened thrash sound, SF has more of a "new school" sound, which tends to move away from the more traditional end of the BM spectrum. While SF may be less "avant-garde" than CAÏNA, and more immediately recognizable as BM, there are clear differences in lyrical themes and artistic intentions between SF and URN.

SF's description of themselves as "poetic black metal" seems to be accurate, and not pretentious. The band's lyrics deal with bleak topics such as death and a global apocalypse, yet there are still pockets of beauty amongst the gloom. The chorus of "Skyscraper" is buoyant, even defiant, despite the feel of an urban dystopia in the intro. The strange machine sounds that lurk in the background of this track pop up on other tracks, like a warning people don't want to acknowledge. The counter-melodies near the end of the track give a sense of disorientation, and indecision about what to do next. "How to Achieve Smallness with Great Things" is arguably the bleakest track, with lyrics concerning death and burning of apocalyptic proportions. The guitar slides and slow-beating drums echo a world in destruction. The soft piano notes, which are faintly audible in the mix, are like the last fragile shards of hope; despite immense tragedy, perhaps hope may ultimately save the human race.

The album is consistently good, with one of my album highlights arriving early on in the form of "Within the Blood Dream". The vocals are like a relentless rainstorm, and the guitar riffs evoke the same image. The spoken word part works here, as do the other spoken word parts on the album. I feel that the reason the spoken word parts worked is that they are inserted in the tracks in such a way that these parts feel like a break between the more intense BM parts. They also add to the story being told on "The Delusion Machine". Near the end of the album, I particularly enjoyed "Singularity", with its bubbling guitar counter-melodies and strong bass. The latter gives a sense that something big is coming...

SHADOWFLAG have offered up strong material on their third album. I found myself getting caught up in the story they told, and swept along by the emotional highs and lows. This is an interesting contribution to a subgenre that manages to accommodate bands as different to each other as URN, SHADWOFLAG and CAÏNA.