MALAKHIM And In Our Hearts the Devil Sings LP

The devil has many homes. He lives in hell, in a lot of sick brains, in the Kremlin and some say he even feels comfortable in the Oval Office. Now he has found new places to stay. The scientists of Malakhim have made the discovery that he sings in our hearts. Shocking enough, but what the hell does he sing? To be honest, he seems to know only seven tracks. But this is enough to impress the audience sustainably. In other words: “And in Our Hearts the Devil Sings” features only fanatic, frenetic and fantastic material. Of course, the debut already indicated Malakhim’s remarkable potential. But this successor goes one, two or even three steps further. Having said this, the answer is no. Simply no. Eh what, you did not ask any question? Shame on me. I gave the answer to “Can a band produce much better music?”. “And in Our Hearts the Devil Sings” is an amalgam of different extreme styles. There are trace elements of Canada’s MNQ, but also the typical Nordic, icy storms show up. Melodic elegance, perhaps more vehemently presented than ever before, liaises with discreet death metal components and even the very atmospheric outro (which is integrated in the final track) sends shivers down my spine. It reminds me of Grabak’s last track on their perfect “Encyclopedia Infernalis” and this fact alone shows me that Malakhim’s output cannot be far away from perfection as well. It creates pictures of an antique city burned to the ground where enormous pain and unimaginable horror reign. Very well done. But I will come back later to “The Firmament Submits” again, because it goes without saying that we do not have to wait for the outro in order to get phenomenal sounds. “The New Temple” marks the first highlight that greets from dizzying as well as Brontë-like wuthering heights. Its highly intensive appearance is based on different layers and the best of them brings melodic fragments into the controlled chaos. The song starts from zero to hundred within the first second and does not lose the smallest quantum of murderous density during its playtime. The demonic, expressive voice battles with the instrumental section and this is probably the first war in the history of mankind which knows only winners at the end. All guitar lines create a fascinating veil of a totally unholy mood. An excellent track – which seems to find its continuation in the directly following “Into Darkness We Depart”. Grumpy freaks may moan about the high degree of similarity to the previous song, but such an intriguing formula can be used twice. And of course, we do not speak about a slavish imitation of “The New Temple”. It just also has a close eye on more or less melodic moments that have to face the storm the song unleashes. These masterpieces deserve nothing less than a flawless production and due to a sane mind, the sound engineers did not want to incur my wrath. Therefore they have done justice to the material. Howling guitars, a powerful drum machinery, a lot of pressure and an almost perfect balance between the single components give the tracks to shine in full bloom. “Angel of the Bottomless Pit” is nearly as great as its two predecessors, while the timpani-introduced, more solemn yet still sinister “Hearts Ablaze” allows the listener to rearrange the thoughts after the previous tempest. No doubt, “And in Our Hearts the Devil Sings” is free from downers, but maybe this track does not belong to this kind of player which decide a final on its own. The same applies to the, well, definitely not mild, but less stormy “Solar Cruxifiction”. Good songs, almost great, but a bit in the shadows of the remaining five black metal bombs. Their devastating brutality, which never loses sight of typical Swedish melodicism, has a very seductive note. This is almost a matter of course when it comes to the opening title track, maybe the most diverse song of the album. But the most surprising crusher awaits the listener at the end. “The Firmament Submits” has all that it needs to become an acoustic legend. Its strength, its completeness, its overwhelming single components like the guitar solo or the main lines – everything contributes to this piece of perfection. Therefore only one conclusion is possible: this album must be heard by every black metal supporter – and this should be no problem. Just listen to the songs that come out of your heart..