Guest review by Albert Ferkl. Photo by Rob Adamson
On October 2, within a month of their acute debut EP A Thorn, A Blight turning two, DAWN RAY’D (ex-WE CAME OUT LIKE TIGERS; interviewed for IDIOTEQ 2 years ago) follow up with The Unlawful Assembly, presenting 10 tracks of violin-driven urgency.
While claiming only 5 songs including a mindful outro, A Thorn, A Blight made a strong impression in metal and punk circles in 2015 by demonstrating just how well heartfelt black metal lends itself to expressing a pressing pursuit of political freedom. The Unlawful Assembly retains this exact approach while doubling up on length, being divided into two parts: The Wild Service and The Wild Magic. Both are concluded by a reflective folk-style song with clean vocals and acoustic instrumentation, titled “A Litany to Cowards” and “A Thought, Ablaze” respectively. The rest of the track-list is all the more fiery, featuring relentless drumbeats and dark guitar-work that engages the frontman’s bittersweet violin passages in melodic dialogue.
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Lyrically, the first track “Fire Sermon” as well as the penultimate “Strike Again the Hammer Sings” and “Island of Cannibal Horses” take the form of anarchist calls-to-arms, while the others are more philosophical, pondering topics such as cowardice (“Future Perfect Conditional”), will and chance (“The Ceaseless Arbitrary Choice”) and sleep and depression (“Held in a Lunar Synthesis”).
Ultimately, the conclusions reached and the general feeling generated by the record corresponds to that stated by the band: inaction is not an option. While the apparent message here is one of social revolution, it functions also on a deeply personal level. This is a call to foster freedom as individuals and unity as communities, and it is black metal nearing its maximum emotive potential.
