Barzakh – In A Meaning the Note (2014)

Hailing from Indonesia, today we have Black Metal battalion Barzakh and a re-release of their crushing 2007 album “In A Meaning the Note”. BM bands from this country have a very distinctive sound and as soon as you listen to one song from this album you can recognize it. Delivering around 26 minutes of devastating music in the span of seven songs, this album is quite intense and not for the faint of heart or mind.

Opening with the crushing catchiness of “Shadow in the Grief”, the band delivers very melodic riffs underneath their fowl harsh screams and intense tempo. This track is a very solid opener as it grabs your attention in a very direct way. Keeping the level of intensity, we have “She's Not Honoured” and “Hatred in Mourn Heart” pummeling the listener while maintaining the band’s characteristic vibe and throwing in some cool guitar leads to keep things fresh.

The sheer brutality and blood curling combination of shrieks and growls in “The Fallen of Unrest” makes this song our personal favorite in this release. While the band’s sound is tight and very compact, it is quite impressive that their drums (in this release) are programmed. Usually programmed drums sound terrible, but Barzakh pulls them off very well, as we can hear in the playful “A place for to Pray”.

As the album winds down with the viciousness of “The Satanic Space” and the old-school leads of “Hallucination of Psycho”, we are left with a very good impression by Barzakh. The band’s musical skills are quite solid and perfectly deliver in their chosen genre. Never feeling dull, “In A Meaning the Note” is quite an engaging release that will keep you entertained for many spins.

Label: Hinernacula Records

Release: Original release 2007 / Re-release 2014

Genre: Black Metal

Country: Indonesia