Blaze Of Perdition‘s history was undoubtedly marked by the tragic car accident that saw the band involved on Austrian roads in 2013, causing the death of bassist Ikaroz and serious consequences to vocalist Sonneillon and drummer Vizun. After such events, life can no longer be the same, for better or for worse: let’s say that, musically speaking, the Polish band seems to have acquired a greater awareness and, if this had already been manifested in the previous album, even more such aspect emerges in this context. The very choice of proposing an album structured on four long tracks says a lot: Blaze Of Perdition have evidently felt the need to take more time and space to develop their idea of black metal; this allows a masterful track like Ashes Remain to oscillate without risks between blast beat outbursts and more rarefied and obscure passages that remind, in some moments, even Fields Of The Nephilim, thanks also to the deep recitative timbre of Sonneillon. If this episode is in its own way emblematic of the current thickness of the band from Lublin, the rest of the work is maintained at excellent levels thanks to an approach that conforms to the basic dictates of the consolidated Polish extreme scene and that, as an added value, sees a natural melodic propensity even if enclosed within a mostly leaden atmosphere. A Glimpse Of God opens as best as it could the hostilities, making guess from the first note of what thickness is the artistic level of this band, which does not waste a single second in interlocutory passages or other artificial fillers: Let’s just say that Weight Of The Shadow is perhaps the song that presents the greatest dissonance, which remain fully functional to the maintenance of tension at its highest level, which is punctually confirmed by the magnificent and final Detachment Brings Serenity, whose final seals a musical approach free of constraints but, at the same time, even of digressions end in themselves. Blaze Of Perdition‘s fourth full length is something that goes beyond the purely aesthetic concept of black metal: here you can feel in an almost tactile way the whirlwind of sensations that are the basis of an amazing compositional and lyrical work, for quality and depth. If you want to put it under the voice of black metal, Conscious Darkness is in all probability one of the candidates for the title of album of the year in this area, although the dark and pressing plots that pervade the songs are fully suitable for listening even by fans of doom or dark metal.

2017 – Agonia Records