DAWN RAY’D
Behold Sedition Plainsong PROSTHETIC
Liverpool black metal trio provide a stirring soundtrack to the revolution
Dawn Ray’d arrived like a breath of fresh air in 2015, with their raw, stripped-down set-up, atmospheric sound and explicitly anti-fascist stance making them a welcome change from the leagues of panda-faced and politically dubious black metal acts. Their 2017 debut album, The Unlawful Assembly, found them sounding even more ferocious and vitriolic than their EP, and Behold Sedition Plainsong continues this trajectory.
The trio’s sound hasn’t changed drastically, but every element has been honed to a razorsharp point. Sonically, Behold… is a lot fuller and more imposing by comparison, with the interplay between Fabian Devlin’s ice-cold guitar tone, Matthew Broadley’s blistering blastbeats and Simon Barr’s beautiful violin feeling more organic and intricate than before, especially on songs like Like Smoke Into Fog, which veer between seething, Tsjuder-like blitzkrieg and almost Agalloch-ian melancholy. Simon’s clean vocals sound a lot more confident too, with the folky A Stone’s Throw being a spinetingling highlight.
His harsh vocals are even more savage too, but still just as clear and audible, which is good as Dawn Ray’d are one of the few contemporary black metal bands that actually have something to say.
From abuse of authority
(Like Smoke Into Fog) to capitalism (To All, To All, To All!), ignorant and inhumane views on immigration (A Time For Courage At The Borderlands) and even the pseudosatanic mumbo-jumbo of less imaginative black metal bands (Songs In The Key Of Compromise), the album rails against a lot of topics whilst managing to contrast astonishingly vivid poetic imagery with big hooks and punchy, Discharge-esque sloganeering without coming across as preachy or disingenuous.
Behold Sedition Plainsong is Dawn
Ray’d’s most dynamic, powerful and effective release to date, and one of the most interesting and important black metal records to come out of the UK in recent years full-stop.
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FOR FANS OF: Yellow Eyes, Wolves In The Throne Room, Wode
KEZ WHELAN