Listen, I know I’m late on this one. I know it’s a pretty high-profile release from a revered band with a tragic backstory. But truth be told, I have not really heard much of this post-Windir act past 2006’s Pitch Black Brigade. In fact, I had no idea they were still active, let alone released an album as recently as 2021 with Wild North West. 

 Secondly, this is such a nuanced, varied, and deep album that reviewing it and doing it justice proved challenging. I’m certain I failed anyway. So here we are. I’ve been on a bit of a black metal kick, so I wanted to see what the still original-ish lineup was up to.

At 55 minutes in length (another reviewing challenge for my ADHD), The Skies That Turn Black, while certainly falling under the black metal umbrella, is far more than that. As with all of the bands’ post-Windir discography, it sheds the skin of the more simple viking-y, pagan throes of those albums and delivers an incredibly ambitious, creative, but melancholic and unpredictable album that lines up alongside other Norwegian luminaries like Enslaved, Borknagar, Shining, Arcturus, Ulver, Tulus, Dark Throne, Fleurety, and such. Though not fully ‘avant-garde’.

There is soooo much going on here. Every single track offers a different and unexpected journey. Some good, some OK, some brilliant. Early on, there is the majestic morose opening track, “From These Woods”, which covers all of black metal sub-genres, and the simple stomp of the title track (a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne), with a main riff that could be a Khold or Tulus song, and the stern, straight-up black thrash of “A Second Death”.

Then the album starts to really mix things up; we get the instrumental “Kraken” (dedicated to the band’s first music teacher), then Agnete Kjølsrud, of Djerv ( though you may recall her as the female vocalist on Dimmu Borgir‘s “Gateways”), croons and howls her way through the sultry, darkwave goth rock of “Loving the Dead”, and the short steady march of “Build and Destroy” again recalls Khold-ish, cold, simplicity but with a few added psychdelic keys.

In the album’s back third, “Chaos” is my favorite track with its soaring chorus and keys, while “Smile of Hate” has a really nice solo and piano usage, and “Echoes of Life” is a somber, clean-sung ballad that fits the band’s history, but brings the album down a bit before closer “The Earth Rumbles” brings it home with a cathcy black ‘n’ roll canter and 70s organs.

The Skies Turns Black takes a lot of listens to fully grasp, and I’m not 100% I’m there yet, despite my tardiness in this review and the multiple listens it took to put words to paper (screen?). But you should certainly undertake this layered and sometimes brilliant album.

[Visit the band's website]

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