Album Review: Hell Is Other People – Embrace (CDN Records)

Out on September 15th 2017 via CDN Records, Embrace is the new album from post-black metal band, Hell is Other People.

It might only be 4 tracks long but this behemoth of an album comes in at nearly 40 minutes. That’s nearly 40 minutes of cold brutal black metal that has genuine moments of beautiful melody.

Both are present in the glorious post-black sound of opening track, Visions. Soft, strumming guitar melody bleeds into a darker & higher tempo style. It’s inventive stuff that grips you tightly refusing to let go until you’ve submitted.

As good as a start as that is, things really take off when Embrace & Blossom step out of the darkness. The former throwing everything into making a incredibly heavy track that shocks with its brutality but leaves a warm smile on the face thanks to the top shelf melody.

The latter chooses to go for the ‘head being ripped off’ approach. Super-fast with just a hint of order amongst the chaotic start to help make it palatable. Out of nowhere the ferocity drops away to reveal an enlightening piece of soft melody that is the highlight of the entire album. A truly wonderous piece of music.

Both tracks kill it with their soaring riff work, soul-searching melody & brutalising vocals.

The Colour Returns takes everything experienced so far & turns it up a notch over 13+ minutes. Substance over style, it tries to muder your ears for half its run-time before dropping into a meticulously crafted bit of guitar strumming. It builds & when it does come back in it’s even harder & more aggressive then it was before!

It might only be 4 tracks long but Hell is Other People pack it with so much greatness that it really doesn’t matter.

Hell is Other People – Embrace Full Track Listing:

1. Visions
2. Embrace
3. Blossom
4. The Colour Returns

You can order the album now over on Bandcamp as well as over on CDN Records store. You can find out much more about Hell is Other People on their Facebook Page.