Artist: Malakhim
Country: Sweden
Label: Iron Bonehead Productions
Formats: LP / CD
Year: 2025
With two demos and ‘Theion’, their debut album, released in the timespan between 2017 and 2021, Malakhim from Sweden has been working hard to establish their name in the international Black Metal scene. You can make a case that they, at least to a certain degree, have succeeded in doing that already. Iron Bonehead Productions has backed-up the band for most of their releases and they have had a good few gigs and festivals appearances and of course having Andreas Nilsson (Naglfar and ex-Ancient Wisdom) in the ranks helps a bit as well. But with ‘And In Our Hearts The Devil Sings’ it seems that Malakhim is aiming for even more…
Although musically ‘And In Our Hearts The Devil Sings’ is not departing an inch from the path chosen with their previous outings, it is abundantly clear that these guys are dreaming big. Perhaps not consciously, but with Watain’s long-awaited and long-overdue retirement, the top spot for radio-friendly and entry-level black metal is now vacant.
On this new album, all rough edges have been stripped away, giving the album a smooth and clean sound and feel. Like a romantic love affair between Watain and later Behemoth. Yet, without the undeniable sophistication of the latter. That does mean that we’re being served with lots of versatile and dynamic and overall melodic sort of Black Metal that heavily leans on its clean and polished production. It’s again very guitar oriented and with lots of room for the Watain-like vocals, but it is the dynamism in the drums and the recognizable melodic riffs and leads of Nilsson that makes Malakhim a possible contender for the Black Metal light-weight world title.
As a whole, ‘And In Our Hearts The Devil Sings’ is quite a solid follow-up to ‘Theion’ and it is brimming with outstanding musicianship, and I have no doubt about the passion with which it was all put together. Yet it is also an album that, while listening, imperceptibly becomes a bit like background music and reaches its end without any real highlights. I clearly prefer the first two demos (or EP’s, if you will), when the music was still a bit rougher and definitely more memorable.
