Simplistic Mechanics of Deformable Bodies

It took me a while to get the hang of Black the Sky. I was very skeptical at first, and found the music a bit rigid and uninspiring. Which feels weird now, as the more I listen to it I find that it’s a very unconventional death metal album, and no way near a stale copy cat record.

I guess the lads have a sense of humor, as I find a few of the track titles to be rather hilarious ("I can tell he’s dead because he has X’s on his eyes" and "I slept with a member of Black the Sky and all I got was rope burn and a bloody asshole", for example). But since there aren’t any lyrics included (in the promo that is, don’t know about the real deal) I can’t say if the title puns carry on into the lyrics. The tunes are fairly technical with lots of twists and turns, tempo changes and, as I said earlier, a bit unconventional song writing. There’s no doubt about it, this is death metal, but some of the breakdowns feel very hardcore-esque, and for some of that unorthodox construction I get to think of earlier The Dillinger Escape Plan for that insane hardcore-ized grindcore. So it’s not just your average mangle. Along the brutal blasting you also get slick guitar leads, chunky chugging slam and a sort of hectic mid tempo that seems to wanna burst out into a full blast. And each song is full of tempo changes, so you never really know what to expect next. Vocal-wise it’s mostly growls turning into screaming, but there’s definitely room for some variation in that department as well, as it can suddenly turn into some form of tortured piglet screeches.

If you’re not afraid of a little variation and aren’t narrow-minded, then I’d recommend you to check this out. They may not re-invent the wheel, but they sure know how to stir shit up.

Originally written for www.mylastchapter.net