BLACKBRIAR – A Thrilling Tale of A Thousand Little Deaths

I discovered Blackbriar a few years ago with the single “Snow White and Rose Red,” a fairy-tale song in which the enchanting voice of lead singer Zora Cock duetted with guest soprano Ulli Perhonen. I then delved deeper with the EP “We’d Rather Burn,” a little gem that tells stories of witches and mermaids in a symphonic and metal key, without ever overdoing it on either side. And now, A Thousand Little Deaths follows.

“Easy to fall in love with this musical offering”

Since then, I have never lost sight of the band, the new frontier of Dutch symphonic metal, now almost a trademark that should have international recognition. The mixture of phantasmagorical stories and dark fairy tales, seasoned in my opinion with a subtle self-irony (an impression not confirmed by the band), is truly fascinating in its uniqueness, and it is easy to fall in love with this musical offering.

And now: A Thousand Little Deaths out on Nuclear Blast

Blackbriar continued to release their EPs and singles, with the same graphics reminiscent of a gothic comic book style, until they reached their first full-length album: The Cause of Shipwreck in 2021, followed by Dark Euphony in 2023, and finally this third work: A Thousand Little Deaths for Nuclear Blast Records. While consolidating their sound and their audience, my impression is that the band has remained statically the same, both in terms of songwriting and themes, keeping within the narrow confines of their musical territory.

A Thousand Little Deaths: the opener Bluebeard’s Chamber

The album opens with “Bluebeard’s Chamber,” introduced by a horror movie piano melody, a solution dear to Lacuna Coil, before the power of symphonic metal leaves no room for hesitation. Zora‘s voice is as enchanting as ever, while René Boxem‘s drumming and the entire rhythm section remain effective. The guitars cut through the atmosphere with precise but sometimes predictable interventions.

One by one the songs are flowing

One by one, the tracks on this album are rattled off, ranging from the insistent rhythm of “The Hermit and the Lover” to the romanticism of “The Fossilized Widow,” a disturbing story of madness and spiritualism that is also well represented in the accompanying video clip. Another story of love and death with “My Lonely Crusade,” followed by one of the most interesting tracks on this album, “Floriography.” The initial atmosphere is reminiscent of a horror film, and Zora‘s voice passes through a distant reverberation before exploding into a very convincing catchy melody.

The real protagonist is…

The singer becomes the protagonist of the stories she tells, and the video production linked to the songs helps to build this imaginary and haunted world with often evocative and disturbing locations. Zora truly seems to embody the female characters of the Gothic novels of Shirley Jackson, a 20th-century American writer who greatly influenced this literary genre, especially with works such as “The Haunting of Hill House” and “We Have Always Lived in the Castle.”

A Thousand Little Deaths and The Great Gatsby

The rest of A Thousand Little Deaths flows smoothly, with the strange chant of “The Catastrophe That is Us” followed by the incisive rhythm of “A Last Sigh of Bliss”, which distracts us for a moment from the torpor, emphasizing the band’s metal nature. “Green Light Across the Bay” is another song about sirens (or perhaps we should understand Chimeras?), but with a literary reference: Francis Scott Fitzgerald‘s “The Great Gatsby” recurs several times in the song, and even the “Green Light” of the title refers to the famous novel.

The last tales

“I Buried Us” starts off as a sort of deadly lullaby before reaching its symphonic explosion. Once again, images, visions, and metaphors on the borderline between life and death, and once again Blackbriar chooses to create a very evocative video where Zora sings in a glass coffin in the snow. For the last track, “Harpy” once again plays with mythological and legendary figures. This is similar to what was done with the song “Selkie” from the band’s first full-length album. In that case, too, a cartoon was chosen to represent a non-human being. The song is a triumph of melodies and symphonic sounds and, as usual, a great work by keyboardist Ruben Wijga.

The last words on A Thousand Little Deaths

A Thousand Little Deaths is a flawless album from a production point of view, thanks also to the wizard Joost van den Broek at the mixing desk. Each song has a story to tell and Zora Cock appears to be a singer in constant evolution, as do all the members of the band. But it must also be said that this third album adds nothing new, as if it were a “fossilized” sound, to paraphrase the most indicative track on this full-length album. Blackbriar are now like a haunted castle, where apparitions appear punctually at the same time every day and then disappear again. Perhaps it would be necessary to break this magic circle and start another story.

Track List

1. Bluebeard’s Chamber
2. The Hermit and the Lover
3. The Fossilized Widow
4. My Lonely Crusade
5. Floriography
6. The Catastrophe That is Us
7. A Last Sigh of Bliss
8. Green Light Across the Bay
9. I Buried Us
10. Harpy

Line-up

• Zora Cock – Vocals
• Bart Winters – Guitar
• Robin Koezen – Guitar
• Ruben Wijga – Keyboards
• Siebe Sol Sijpkens – Bass
• René Boxem – Drums

Puoi leggere questa recensione in Italiano anche su VeroRock.it

A Thousand Little Deaths is out now via Nuclear Blast Records, and can be purchased here.

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