Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway
Now five years since the bands’ formation in Tampere, Finland, doom sludge / post-hardcore band Black Royal has just released its full-length debut. Titled ‘Lightbringer‘, it arrived this past Friday (March 9) from Suicide Records.
We are sharing this album’s weighty, massive musical assault via the Soundcloud embed below. There you will find a 10 song, 44-minute bludgeoning of alternating degrees, depending on the particular intensity of the given track. Rest assured, each is rendered with unwavering determination and a hefty groove.
Cohesive and dense, layer upon layer of post-hardcore, sludge, death metal, and other elements are fused into this act of aggression. Lyrical themes take on religion, science fiction, hypocrisy, human nature, and other subjects, while the music works to set the mood. Yet, all is not just audible savagery, melodic inserts appear at different points as do samples and acoustic passages.
All in all, Black Royal has made a resonating mark here, a monolithic scar if you will, with their follow-up to their previous EP releases (‘The Summoning Pt. 1′ and ‘Pt. 2′, 2015 and 2016 respectively) and earlier 7″ single, ‘Dying Star’.
You can purchase the ‘Lightbringer‘ album from Black Royal at this location.
