Sear Bliss has been on my radar ever since listening to Letters From The Edge back in 2018, where their usage of brass became the highlight of my listening experience. Fresh into my foray of the strange and the avant-garde in black metal, Letters From The Edge eventually became one of the blueprints from which I could assess just how strange and bizarre an avant-garde black metal album could be. Although I have since moved from exploring black metal, I knew that I would eventually be pulled back in with their newest release, Heavenly Down.
For me, Sear Bliss is a band that somehow manages to combine the more “symphonic” aspects of their music with their innate ability to know when a good hook is needed. For example, first track “Infinite Grey” starts off with the traditional blast beats and an overall cold atmosphere, before the trombone kicks in and gives the song an interesting melodic flair. Although the trombone may be seen as a strange choice, it doesn’t interrupt the flow of the music or come at an awkward time to fill up space. Instead, the trombone is incorporated extremely well, acting more as an accent piece that adds to the overall atmosphere of the music. This is highlighted on tracks like “Watershed” and “The Winding Path,” where the trombone, even as the melodic lead, seems to expand the boundaries where the song can go. It is also a bit of an earworm, as I have found myself humming the melody at the most inopportune times.
I also wanted to mention that Heavenly Down blitzes through its runtime but keeps your attention taut throughout. While there are sections across each track that slows down its tempo, it doesn’t deter itself from reaching its overall conclusion. Each track is different, a microcosm of its own atmosphere and sonic world-building that just builds upon the previous track. Because of its overall variance, each track has something new and distinct to offer, allowing you to always pick up on something that you missed the first time. At this point in time, while I know where a track changes its tempo or has a fun melodic line, I am still surprised by what else I have missed on a previous listen. It’s a refreshing take on black metal, taking on the form as a piece of art rather than being an album.
Underneath its overall sonic appeal and almost majestic music composition, there’s something gentle around Heavenly Down. Granted, “gentle” isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when one first hears about black metal, but I think this description is apt. Halfway through the album, it suddenly dawns on the listener that “this” music has become softer, the ferocity and pace that Sear Bliss created in the first half of the record has now taken a step back to showcase something else. Just like Letters From The Edge, there’s this elegance to the overall atmosphere, an atypical delight that gives the music so much of its color. Of course, the inherent chaotic nature of black metal remains the focus, especially when songs like “The Winding Path” and closer “Feathers in Ashes” have synths that remind me of frost, but the music doesn’t bite. Instead, it ebbs and flows, concerned more with its highly experimental nature than with creating a standard black metal album. Add the trombone and other associated brass, and you get incredibly complex music with a slight spiritual nuance that impresses even the most stalwart black metal purist.
Heavenly Down is an excellent return to form, an expansive yet catchy album that showcases hidden gold. This album has easily wormed itself as one of my favorites for the year, a breath of fresh air within the many albums I have enjoyed thus far. This is the kind of black metal I want to listen to when I miss the genre: melodic, expansive, and endlessly interesting – and it’s one of the reasons I always come back.
— Hera
Heavenly Down is available now on Hammerheart Records. For more information on Sear Bliss, visit their official Facebook page.
Nine Circles 