ALBUM REVIEW: A Dark Euphony – Blackbriar
If you have watched any music videos from Nuclear Blast’s roster on YouTube over the last few months, chances are you will have been recommended a track or two from BLACKBRIAR. The Dutch metallers recently signed with the iconic label, and all parties will be in high spirits with the release of A Dark Euphony: this is a generation- and genre-defining release.
Their blend of symphonic, gothic and alternative metal places the band among a saturated scene, but on this, their second full-length album, they become leaders of the pack, taking the baton that has been passed down from EVANESCENCE, NIGHTWISH, WITHIN TEMPTATION, EPICA, and DELAIN. Following a long promotional campaign – four of the album’s 11 tracks dropped online pre-release – it’s clear the band are on to something here. When the Rebecca-inspired Crimson Faces emerged ten months ago, its epic majesty was no fluke. My Soul’s Demise followed, then Cicada and Forever And A Day, each as standout as the last with a level of songwriting bands spend entire careers reaching for.
Everything that gave The Cause Of Shipwreck such promise has been fine-tuned and improved upon. There is bombast the size of a Hollywood blockbuster to go along with Zora Cock‘s instantly identifiable melodies, more lullaby-like and haunting than ever. She sings “Your death will be my soul’s demise / I’ll carry your sins, but who will carry mine?” like she were a ghost desperate for answers, and delivers “There’s a goblin sitting on my chest” with all the anxiety of someone hopelessly haunted by night terrors. Her performance is consistently sincere and committed, singing of fairytales and folklore as if they were as real as any of us.
Maybe that is what makes BLACKBRIAR and A Dark Euphony so exemplary. Magic exudes from the record, using the language of fantasy and fiction to say something profoundly human, in much the same way Guillermo del Toro does in cinema. Bloody Footprints In The Snow, about the mythical creature Wendigo, creeps and crawls with sinister energy, sinfully indulging in terrible impulses. The Greek mythology in Spirit Of Forgetfulness tells an old familiar tale of the Lethe river while capturing a sense of losing yourself entirely because of another. Like GHOST, the band use these symbols of horror and legend to speak to something innate in us about life; often, the darker side of it, the emotional, spiritual and primal pains that have inspired poets for centuries and continue to act as muses for BLACKBRIAR.
Now armed with a major label, the band finally have a canvas big enough for their vision. The record sounds absolutely massive, best experienced through headphones (at night, naturally) to pick out a symphonic flourish here and lose yourself to an earth-rumbling riff there. Thumbelina’s delicate glockenspiel is positively ASMR-inducing, and the way Cock’s voice dances over metal cacophonies makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up from the contrast of grace and power.
As difficult second albums go, BLACKBRIAR have knocked it out of the park. With A Dark Euphony, they have established themselves as major players, setting the bar high for themselves and raising it for everyone around them. Fans of the genre will find something special in these songs and take comfort in the emergence of a band who make the world feel like an exciting place to be.
Rating: 9/10
A Dark Euphony is set for release on September 29th via Nuclear Blast Records.
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