SIRAKH are a post punk, gothic style hard rock and heavy metal band from Oulu, Finland, a town most known for it's active death and thrash metal scene. The band refers to themselves as a dark alternative band as their music doesn't fit into the ranks of rock, metal or goth music. They are no strangers to the world of music having formed back in 2013, they are also no strangers to the studio as they started off 2015 with their first release, a single titled "Early Grave" which was released on New Years Day. Followed by a gap of almost two years as they released their second single "Be Mine" in December 2016. They released their debut EP "Resurrection" in February 2017 and finished off that year with a single titled "Heart Of Fire". 2019 saw two singles from the band "Violet Dawn" in February and "Mirrors" in July. 2020 was the same with the releases of both "Yours For The Breaking" which was recorded live at Soundmix in January before they finished the year off with "Grown Apart" in December. They kicked off 2021 with a bang with single "Tear Me To Shreds" followed by their debut album "Crisis Of Faith" on WormHoleDeath Records in January.

The album is packed with ten dark alternative tracks for fans of dark alternative music to enjoy, with a blend of both Marina Trench and Padre Mortis adding two different yet complimentary vocal tones, Nikki Angelus and Julius Seizure bringing their rhythmic guitars to the table, backed up by Dimitry Bonefield's melodic drumming, all held down together by the skills of Zachary T on bass. Prior to the release of this album the band released six of the tracks as singles, first came the albums third track "Heart Of Fire" which came out as far back as 2017. The band then released the albums penultimate track "Violet Dawn" in 2019 along with seventh track "Mirrors". The albums opening track "Yours For The Breaking" was released live at Soundmix in 2020 along with track six "Grown Apart" also being released in 2020 the albums second track "Tear Me To Shreds" was released as a single a week prior to the albums release in 2021.

The band definitely made a bold choice releasing an album in which more then half of the tracks where already released, leaving only tracks four and five "Love Like Blood" and "Downfall" as well as track eight "New Black" and the closing track "The Devils Mark" as the only tracks fans had yet to hear.

 "Love Like Blood" has a very interesting sound to it, it's got very bass heavy sounding guitars and melodic drumming with the vocals predominantly coming from Marina Trench and backed up in parts by the much deeper vocals of Padre Mortis, it had a unique sound to it for sure and is vastly different from the much heavier track "Downfall" which followed it with much more predominant bass tones, heavier guitars and much rougher and darker sounding vocals from Padre Mortis which are brought to light much more on this track then its predecessor which definitely shows the bands versatility and dynamic range quite well.

 "New Black" is a very traditional sounding hard rock track, with heavy guitars, melodic, hard hitting drums and once again an interesting mix of the two vocalists vocal tones creating their own unique sound. The album is brought to a close by "The Devil's Mark" starts off as possibly one of the heaviest, if not the heaviest sound track on the album with hard hitting drums and rhythmic guitars but then transitions into quite a soft instrumental to close out the album which is a very unique and interesting touch by the band.

Having listened to the album in it's entirety, I can definitely say it's one for fans all sorts of music to enjoy as they blend many different genres together to create their signature dark alternative sound, from hard rock and heavy metal to punk and goth rock there's something in it for everyone and they are definitely one to look out for.