Coming from the shadows of Sardinia’s underground metal scene, The Blacktones return with The Longest Year, their new album released via Sleaszy Rider Records.
Known for their unique blend of sludge metal with 90s grunge and stoner elements, the band has honed their craft over a decade, evolving into a force that marries heavy, polyrhythmic complexity with raw, introspective lyricism.
After the success of their 2017 album The Day We Shut Down The Sun, The Blacktones have taken their time to craft something even more layered, reflecting both personal and collective turmoil.
As the world spun through the pandemic years, the band used this dark period to channel those experiences into their new work—a sonic journey through existential fears, inner turmoil, and the human experience.
The album opens with Dreaming and The Threshold, two interconnected tracks that dive straight into the dreamlike, yet nightmarish realm that defines much of The Longest Year. The intro sets a haunting tone, leading into The Threshold, where unsettling, dreamlike spaces mix with brutal truths. As guitarist Sergio Boi explains, these songs are inspired by recurring nightmares, where the boundary between life and death becomes the key to moving through the story.
The Longest Year is an intense journey, delving into the complexities of existence, grief, and self-reflection.
For a deeper dive into the creative process behind each track, check out the full track-by-track commentary from the band, where they unravel the stories and emotions that shaped The Longest Year.
Dreaming (01:52) // The Threshold (07:15)
These two songs are linked, with Dreaming serving as an intro not just to The Threshold but to the whole record. It sets the mood.
The songs are about two nightmares I had in two different times, blended in one story. They’re the kind of dreams where you move through rooms and spaces that are a mix of different known places.
What turns the first dream into a nightmare is that the key to move from a different space to another one is dying. Investigating on a corpse on the floor I got shot from behind. The killer just said something to me before I woke up in a strange, old house. Weird stuff to put on lyrics, I thought.
Noise Pattern (04:36)
This song is about taking decisions. Sometimes we need to create in our mind a place where we can reflect about stuff, when we have to take a big step in our life and we just don’t know how. Sometimes we don’t see things as they really are, so we need to look at the apparently messy situation (the noise pattern) and try to figure out something that makes sense to us.But it is also about the fear of making mistakes and being trapped in our own mind.
Greenhouse (05:27)
Another oniric song, but I don’t want to go too much deeper in this one. But if you imagine just for a second your own mind as a big greenhouse, and every thought is a plant, will you feed everything equally? Which one do you want to grow and which would be pruned? Will you care about the world outside when you have so much to do inside your mind?
The Parade (03:21)
In the previous record, we had a song called I.D.I.O.T.S. about people who believe every kind of bullshit on the internet. The Parade it’s its spiritual successor, because it is about the pandemic years and all the crazy stuff we heard in those times. What hurt me the most at that time was that so many people ignored the suffering, the deaths, refusing to vaccinate or to care about the others.
Older Brother (04:30)
Four years ago the memoir “Sing Backwards and Weep” by Mark Lanegan was published, and I got a copy. His crazy stories from the grunge era inspired the lyrics, at the time I wrote them he was still alive. He passed through the nineties when younger musicians of the same scene didn’t make it. His departure from this earth two years ago was a true loss for everyone, but he left so many good records to remember him.
What Year Is This (02:40)
A clear homage to twin peaks, in the middle of the record as an interlude. Born as an experiment, we decided to put it here to give a break to breath before reaching the end of this journey.
Living On The Surface (04:17)
a fast and very heavy song, with a starting granitic riff. Lyrics are about people who always blame others without facing their own issues. A very straightforward song, reminds me of our first record.
Take This Time (05:19)
Initially called “Black Lungs”, this song got some serious rework, because lyrics and riffs together didn’t fit too well. At some point we decided to start lyrics from scratch and change the song structure. The result is what you can hear on disk, a powerful mid tempo with a melodic chorus. The Song is about growing up and dealing with grief living in a world that doesn’t always give you time to heal.
The Other Face Of Nothing (04:34)
My favorite of the entire record, for both riffs and lyrics. A fast song, with aggressive vocals. It changes completely towards the end, giving a little break with a melodic part, but quickly going back to the heavy stuff.
The Other “Face” is the other side of our local metal/hc scene. Some years ago we faced tragedy as a collective, when a musician of a band born in this scene died. Months later a big hc festival was dedicated to him, and was a surreal experience at least. All my personal thoughts regarding that day are in these lyrics
Russian Doll (05:58)
It closes the album, the weirdest one. Its name was already there in the demo versions just because we were watching Russian Doll series on Netflix. The name sticked to the song, so I decided after all to talk about that show, that I loved so much, especially the first season.
