Of all the many different branches on the massive tree that is metal music, it’s the massive log of a branch that’s black metal holds easily the most amount of diversity in sound in a genre that’s already ridiculously diverse. With so many different styles to go around that are done by so many different people, it can be easy to accidentally neglect a style from time to time while listening to a good bit of the rest. For me, it’s depressive black metal that tends to get neglected from me purely by chance, but it’s because of acts like Afraid of Destiny that will always have me come back for more.

For the most part, lyrical content or the mood of the music itself doesn’t really play a massive factor in my overall enjoyment of the content in question as I’m very much a go with the flow kind of guy, and it hasn’t done me wrong yet. But, when listening to a style that clearly has a specific mood and atmospheric goal in mind, I really try to see if the music achieves that so I do my best to take it all in. And it’s with Afraid of Destiny that I see some of the most immaculate material of this style done as “S.I.G.H.S.” brings the core ideals of depressive black metal to the surface in exemplary fashion. There isn’t a single moment of “S.I.G.H.S.” that isn’t absolutely drenched in melancholia, isolationism, and self-hatred as Afraid of Destiny comes back from their widely praised previous record, “Agony”, to deliver us an album that’s a trip through the mind and cavernous soul of the inner self that absolutely detests the fact that it itself exists in any capacity, and “S.I.G.H.S.” harnesses that energy and raw emotion wondrously. It takes the volatile nature of the mind that constantly berates itself, takes it into a marvelous black metal display that’s all but devilishly seductive, and has us walk through those same dark corridors as Afraid of Destiny expertly guides us through with its voice a constant reminder of our failures. With all that in play, it’d be a shame to not call “S.I.G.H.S.” a success of the genre.

Many people love to bash on depressive black metal for its very existence and content, but this genre captures emotion the likes of which few other genres can and present it in a typically vicious performance that makes the material all the more tantalizing, and Afraid of Destiny is a prime example of such with “S.I.G.H.S.” being the best showcase of depressive black metal that I’ve seen in years.

“S.I.G.H.S.” releases on February 15th via Talheim Records!

LISTEN to previous material from Afraid of Destiny on Bandcamp here.

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