Black Magick SS – Burning Bridges (2023)

August 10, 2023

An interesting but perhaps natural evolution for the band, Burning Bridges sees the once kvlt-as-fvk esoteric black metal band now plunge headfirst into synth pop and/or rock. Comparing this to something like Panzerwitch and the change is surprising, but put it up against something as recent as Rainbow Nights and the gradual change makes much more sense. That being said, I think Burning Bridges perhaps strays too far from what makes Black Magick SS such a good band.

There has always been a cheeky balance, but here the scales are tipped, and too far in the synth pop direction. That’s not to say there aren’t some great songs here (“Dinosaurs” is great), but for me, the spooky magic of BMSS is missing from the record, what with the cleaner, brighter direction of both the music and the production. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that this is a bad album, there’s clearly been a lot of thought and talent that’s gone into making it, but this is just not the kind of thing that I come to this band for.

There is an interesting “secret track” at the end that seems to send the band full circle back to their original demo style, which is pretty cool, but generally this album is just not for me, as well made as it may be.