Harakiri for the Sky's first album has this strange calming effect on me. The harsh black metal screaming contrasted with the calm post-metal guitar melodies seem to say "The world is crumbling, and there's nothing we can do. Just sit back and watch it happen."

I think the first track can make or break an album. The first track on this album is "Lungs Filled With Water", and it's really good! The huge commanding guitar melody in this song seems to overwhelm the vocals, with the singer fighting with all his might to barely break out above the onslaught. He's really screaming his lungs out on this song. I'm not sure if this is done purposely to create the image of drowning, but it works really well considering the song title.

The next track on the album, 02:19 AM, Psychosis, another great one. It starts with a deathly scream, as if it came from a ghoul, rose fresh from a grave. As the song goes on, some quiet clean vocals are added, which have an ancient, mystic quality to them. The lyrics tell us of someone who lived a life of pain and misery, now doomed to die in a small apartment in a city, slowly going mad. The song ends with these chilling lyrics: "The silence of winter is a deafening noise to my ears/These nights drag unendingly and and shadows grow longer/I can't understand this agony, what is it for?/When will I at last find my autumn asylum?"

Those are my two favorite tracks on the album, but they are all very good. This is also my favorite Harakiri for the Sky album. On later albums, the band abandons some of their black metal harshness for a cleaner, more marketable sound, a more sanitized production, and less harsh vocals. Their later albums are still good, but this one really hits that sweet spot of harsh black metal sound combined with atmospheric and emotional post metal melodies.

My rating: 8.5/10