Whenever I have a hard time choosing an album from our promo list, a black metal album from Avantgarde Music is usually a pretty safe bet. Such is how I came across Shir Hashirim, the third full-length from Italian/Polish black metal band Amalekim. Combining a ritualistic atmosphere with razor-sharp precision, this album will undoubtedly be of interest to fans of modern black metal.

At this point in the genre’s history there’s of course too many “trends” going on to say that black metal is definitively going in one direction or another, but one such tendency that seems to have found a solid foothold is the semi-melodic sound championed by bands such as Mgła, Uada, and Gaerea. I’m on record as not particularly being a fan (often sounding too overproduced on the one hand yet not totally committing to melodicism on the other), but Amalekim have a few tricks up their sleeve that set them a bit above their peers. The band’s style of black metal is a seemingly-nonstop flurry of extended trem picks often accentuated with some more rhythmic chugs, a further evolution of the style pioneered by Swedish bands such as Dark Funeral and Marduk. Taking inspiration from Judeo-Christian mythology — the cover itself a rendition of the Judgement of Solomon — this theme reveals itself primarily through the performance of drummer Ktulak, whose syncopated rhythms evoke a highly ritualistic atmosphere on tracks such as “Chant V: Tanur Nitzchi” (not to mention the religious chants that open the song).

Shir Hashirim is certainly not a melodic black metal album in the same sense as recent favorites of mine like Marrow of Man or Inherits the Void, but when these elements do lock in the results are quite good. The best example of this is “Chant IV: Sodot HaYekum” and its backbone of melodic triplets that are not just earworms but prove themselves to be some of the most riff-focused material on the album, serving as the necessary accentuation for the extended tremolo lines. Black metal lends itself to longer tracks that reveal themselves through repetition and constructing sonic landscapes over maybe six to eight minutes (at least), but Amalekim keep all their songs within four to six minutes on this album. As Imperial Triumphant showed us last month this is not always a bad thing, but the songs on Shir Hashirim could use a bit less brevity; it’s harder to take stock of the auditory journey when each step concludes so soon. In conjunction with how their riffs are constructed in the first place, however, I do think this will suit them much better in a live setting.

While not exactly what I’m looking for in black metal nowadays Amalekim are sure to garner new fame with Shir Hashirim, especially if the music is as suited for live rituals as it seems to be on record. If you need some dark and furious black metal with a religious bent (as opposed to nature, perhaps) or a snapshot into where certain sects of the genre seem to be going in 2025, look no further.

— Colin

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Shir Hashirim will be available May 2 through Avantgarde Music. For more information on Amalekim, check out their Facebook and Instagram pages.