With every passing day, it feels like the world’s fate grows increasingly gloomy and disheartening. As this sense of impending doom continues to set in, music has become more and more divided between escapism and realism as artists either choose to celebrate in the face of rising global concerns or face those fears head on. The latter describes Austrian post-metal band ‘Harakiri for the Sky’ to a tee as the group’s newest release ‘Scorched Earth’ is, as the band themselves put it, “a snapshot of… a world that’s tragically broken.” For all its melodic intricacies and harrowing lyrical touches though, the group’s 8th LP feels somewhat weighed down by its own melancholy and winds up as an enjoyable yet inessential addition to the band’s discography.

‘Scorched Earth’ picks up right here ‘Harakiri for the Sky MMXXII’ left off more than two years ago, leaning further into the band’s more atmospheric side. From the opening piano notes of ‘Heal Me,’ the band welcome fans back to a highly familiar sound, built almost completely around epic, bombastic harmonies— it’s in each song’s gigantic crescendos that the album seems most at home, allowing Sollak to really flex his ability to craft memorable melodies, and the band seem acutely aware of this as they bring each one to an increasingly climactic finish. Most of the guitar work across the album won’t win any awards for technical innovation— this is no Yngwie Malmsteen record after all— but consistently impresses in the sheer scale of the ideas presented: ‘Without You I’m Just A Sad Song,’ for instance, lets loose with the full power of mother nature towards the end as that single, soaring melody is given full-rein to take over.

The record benefits immensely from what might just be Harakiri for the Sky’s most massive and enthralling sound design to date, taking each song to new heights of melodic wonder. Capturing the delicacy of the lead guitars without sacrificing on the intensity and urgency the bass and drums bring to many passages, the production of ‘Scorched Earth’ may be its most impressive element, fitting Wahmtraum and Sollak’s shifting musical focus like a glove. No track demonstrates this better than the welcome, if surprising, cover of Radiohead’s ‘Street Spirit (Fade Out)’ that closes the album, which attempts to recapture the sorrow of the original while injecting far more abrasion and volume into the instrumentation: it’s shockingly well-executed, embellishing the track with layers of vocal harmonies and drones that allow the cut to fit alongside the rest of the album very well. Though it may not quite rival Radiohead’s version for its intimacy, we can’t deny that Harakiri for the Sky’s rendition brings a new energy to the song.

Those sweeping textures are nothing knew for the band though: if anything, they’ve actually grown quite commonplace as Sollak and Wahmtraum have continuously relied on these larger-than-life sounds to fill out their songs. On ‘Scorched Earth’ though, the ideas aren’t really enough to justify each track’s length, with the each subsequent ten-minute epic dancing around increasingly interchangeable melodies. Though the album may excel in its most crushing and theatrical moments, cuts like ‘No Graves but the Sea’ or ‘Keep Me Longing’ take far too long to get there, meandering through increasingly forgettable stretches that have the album feeling more and more homogenous with every listen. Adding on the abrasive, punk-influenced vocal style Wahmtraum leans into for much of the album, which never feels like a natural (or even desirable) addition to the otherwise gorgeous sound palate, ‘Scorched Earth’ often leaves you waiting for the next crescendo— those climactic endings, for as powerful as they are, never quite seem worth the time investment.

The greater failing of the vocals is how they strip the lyrics of their intimate, despondent nature— taken in isolation, many of the lines from ‘Scorched Earth’ are incredibly tender and sorrowful. Throughout the record, Wahmtraum explores the central theme of a broken heart through the image of nature, drawing interesting parallels between personal struggles and the issues facing the wider world. There’s a gorgeous poetry to many lyrics throughout the album: take, for instance, this stunning passage from ‘Without You I’m Just A Sad Song.’

“I'm waiting for someone and can't remember who

But there's a hole in my heart shaped just like you

You've drawn memories in my mind that I can never replace

You've painted colours in my heart which I can never erase”

Metal is rarely touted as the most lyrically-intricate of genres, but Harakiri for the Sky’s new LP is chock-full of these passionate and heart-wrenching refrains, providing a greater level of nuance and depth to the record. We only wish we could’ve explored these ideas through a different medium, as the shrill shrieks the lyrics are delivered through do them a great disservice.

There’s a lot to love about ‘Scorched Earth,’ and we’d be lying to claim we hadn’t gotten our money’s worth from the lyrical content alone— taken as whole, however, the record teeters on the edge of excellence but falls short. Shakespeare once wrote that “brevity is the soul of wit”— it’s a lesson that Harakiri for the Sky, unfortunately, seem to have forgotten, as each track on their newest release wanders on for far too long. Fans will surely be pleased with this familiar, touching collection of tracks: we’ll be hoping for a more consistent project in the meantime.