From Bandcamp, “HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY will now release their new tour-de-force, "Scorched Earth," on January 24th through AOP Records. The album is a snapshot of the world we are living in, a world that’s tragically broken. Our society is divided to its core and peace seems further away than ever in the last decades. It still seems like one crisis follows another, and this feeling of impending doom is captured on “Scorched Earth.” The album has eight songs.

“Heal Me” is first, and there is a striking balance between somber melodies and the hardened edge of Black Metal. The vocals are very emotive, and with each screamed note, you feel worse and worse. Piano notes keep the song from totally burying you however. “Keep Me Longing” has wonderful melodies that are as black as your soul, and the song teeters on the edge of a precipice, threatening to take the leap and be extinguished forever. Yet, the force of the melodies keep it upright, and you can easily lose yourselves in their beguiling power. “Without You I’m Just a Sad Song” is another song with a perfect balance between light and dark, hope and despair. The bass, drums, vocals, and aggressive riff supply the energy and aggressiveness, and the piano and incredibly well-structured melodies in the guitars supply the temperance.

“No Graves but the Sea” has another heavy dose of melody, and its ability to draw out your worst nightmares is admirable. They grab you by the collar, drag you out to the sea, and threaten to drown you. But rather than going through with it, they hold you in a state of suspension that feels like a constant ache…a pervasive sense of doom. “With Autumn I’ll Surrender” uses some ominous keyboards, ethereal piano, and the thick thumping of bass guitar to go along with the contentious vocals and guitar riffs. This song is on fire, running the listener through a bevy of emotions…and most of it us pure anguish and pain. “I Was Just Another Promise You Couldn’t Keep” maintains the suspense and sense of delicate balance that is so pervasive on the album. Read the title, and picture the torture of those words as they are yelled aloud.

“Too Late for Goodbyes” is a song that pushes melody so deep, you almost don’t notice the hardened sense of doom that accompanies it. The clean vocals echo with a heavy sense of emotion as well, and this song makes my very soul ache. “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” closes what has been a very passionate album for me. Clean vocals combine with the cold bite of guitar, bass, and drum strikes that seem to just put another gunshot into an already dead corpse. Few albums manage to straddle the fragile line between hope and despair with such poignant grace as this one. It pulls listeners into a world where light and darkness collide in a breathtaking dance, while it feels like standing on the precipice of a storm—where the winds of optimism fight against the inevitable weight of encroaching doom. This looming sense of doom never overpowers, but rather serves as a stark reminder that even in our darkest moments, there is a flicker of light worth fighting for. This is an album that demands to be felt as much as it is heard, a cathartic journey for anyone standing on the edge of their own abyss.