Bloodbark - Sacred Sound of Solitude (2025)^{Release ID: 56985}

Truly atmospheric black metal all too often strays dangerously close to 'gaze' territory for my liking.  It is as if the true art of some serene and icy cold black metal, cloaked in dense atmosphere has been lost at times.  I can't pretend that some of the notes on Sacred Sound of Solitude would be out of place on an Alcest record (nobody is perfect) but the thought process overall here by Bloodbark appears to be very much orientated around black metal still.  If, like me, you schooled yourself on atmo-black via any of the Memoria Vetusta records by BAN, then Bloodbark is most definitely for you.  The snow here is pristine white, the air is clear and the atmosphere holds a density behind these endearing images.  The music still has a charge to it, a vibrancy to the tremolo that reminds me of some of Grima's album from this year also.  You would be hard-pushed to call this one a classic by any means and it certainly lacks the variation of Nightside by Grima, yet this record still possesses a charm all of its own.

Very little is known about Bloodbark.  The band chooses not to disclose details of the members - even shying away from confirming the geography that they are native to.  None of that really matters though as there is enough of an air of mystery to Sacred Sound of Solitude to keep me interested without having to speculate about how is responsible for the music.  It is clearly performed by capable musicians who know their way around the atmospheric and post-black metal scene.  As such they are able to create haunting music that fills the space you are listening to it in.  The BAN reference is most certainly valid but there's also nods to Summoning in the mix here to boot.

Where SSoS falls short is that it never truly gets beautiful.  It hints at the surreal appeal that winter landscapes can offer but those swan-like qualities never feel like they have become fully formed.  The clean singing and spoken word aspects to the vocals are a bit dull in all honesty and I think this is because they are not shrouded in enough mystery like the rest of the instrumentation around them.  In a way they are almost too obvious for their own good.  As I am listening through on my seventh or eighth visit to the record, I am now starting to sense that 'gaze' element more.  However, this is by no means of a threatening level to the more bm elements by any stretch and although the rating is not in the higher end of the spectrum, it is still a record that stands out from the pack in 2025 so far.