Horizon Ablaze have crafted a stunning portrait of the frailty of the human psyche on The Weight of a Thousand Suns. The Norwegian act eschews the typical discussions of supernatural demons; instead, their latest effort is imbued with eight tales of distinct mental disorders and the experience of fighting and embracing ones own inner demons. This is a harrowing and powerful listen throughout, but what sets it apart is Horizon Ablaze’s take on progressive extreme metal, which utilizes a multi-faceted approach that toys around with their sound; songs dial up or down the blackened atmosphere, technical death metal aggression, the haunting progressive passages, and more avant-garde dissonant skronky riffs. Their style recalls many of the greats: Enslaved, Emperor, Gorguts, Hate Eternal; however, Horizon Ablaze have been, ahem, blazing for a decade now, and they’ve carved our their own take on the style.
Aside from a bit of a mid-album lull, the record is propelled by a truly fantastic opening and closing. What actually sets The Weight of a Thousand Suns apart from the growing number of progressive extreme metal groups of late is the band’s sonic dexterity and songwriting smarts. The closing couplet in the record features the most incendiary work on the record while also diverting quite far from the norm. “My Soul Divided” features a jangling acoustic strum before launching into fiery and bombastic blastbeat section that leads into some of the record’s best riffing in the song’s second half. “Insidious” is arguably the least blackened song of the bunch, with its legitimately arresting progressive beauty; yet, it also features the best blackened freak-out of the bunch, even though it leads to a nifty proggy solo. Too many progressive metal bands lean too hard on one of the two parts of the term; Horizon Ablaze are masters at both on this wonderfully haunting record.
