Candlelight Records – 2012 – Hungary
I must say that my first listening of the new Sear Bliss was a shock for me. I started to like the new album in the end because it is really fresh and I believe that the band reinvented them with this one. But let’s start at the beginning and why I was shocked with this new record from them. The trumpet for which this band is famous in the Black Metal circle sounds at some moments a bit to Jazzy for my taste and the “Jazz moments” here are also filled with some other instruments that takes them in this corner. Beside the Jazz moments here, the next shock for me was that some of the vocals here are clean now and sometimes they even sound a bit like Grundge. Since I was never a fan of Grundge music, this shocked me very much and I had to take my time and to give this band that counts among my favorite bands a chance. I don’t know why they did that and by now I learned to life with this kind of vocals while listening to this album. Beside these elements that I mentioned, you can hear here Sear Bliss at its bests. This new album continues there where the band stopped with their last albums and they improved their sound and managed to make it sound modern without betraying their own roots. Maybe that is also the reason why they put these new things in it and it is now up to the fan to judge if they succeed with it or not. The songs here on this album are also a bit slower comparing to their previous releases and this gives to them a new dimension of darkness and I even dare to say that it gives even a claustrophobic element to the listeners. Instead of going beserk while listening to it you can truly feel the darkness surrounding you and this feeling leaves you even at some point almost helpless to say it so. Sure that their old fans will have some issues with this new record, but I would recommend to them that they don’t through it away. New fans will surely finds this album interesting and it will make them to listen more of this talented Hungarian Black Metal band.
9/10
