Hymns of Blinding Darkness - Our Dying World (Review)

Over the last few years, Los Angeles’s Our Dying World has gone through a tremendous evolution of sound from thrashy death metal of their debut EP Expedition to the symphonic and melodic keyboard-oriented stylings. The band is back with their newest album “Hymns of Blinding Darkness” all set to be out on today and I can’t wait to share my thoughts on the album

Serving as the prelude to the album, “Ars Moriendi” serves as the pompous and grandiose cinematic intro with its horns, brass, strings and chimes before bleeding into “Everything We Know is Gone”. With punchy riffs and groovy drums, the track serves as the perfect opening track. It almost sounds like the mixture of symphonic elements of Children of Bodom and riffs of Lamb of God, with few sprinkles of melo-death too. The vocals too has the influence of the signature Randy Blythe vocal style, prevalent throughout the album.

Tracks like “Under the Hunter’s Blade” and “Survivor” serve as the album’s longest tracks with almost seven and a half minutes of runtime. The folk styled intro to “Under the Hunter’s Blade” showcases many catchy riffs with a lot of melodic elements. The symphonic elements often take the front seat during the impactful moments. While being almost joyous and upbeat for mostly the first half, the second half takes a darker undertone with its melody lines. “Survivor” starts with clips of a joyful choral arrangement of Tom’s high school choir before Jon Martin Crawford, who appeared before the New York Supreme Court in order to disclose child abuse from said school, echoes his final words of the testification.The song does not shy away from using acoustic phrasings, with melodious clean singing on top - which honestly works! A lot of melodic shredding and flashing solos along with epic orchestration and riffs on the track. Clearly, the band wants you to be invested on the epic journeys they peregrinate.

“Path of the Nomad” has a war-metal/viking-metal vibe to it. Apart from the instrumentations, the majestic strings evoke a sensation of grand expedition. Starting off with marching drum beats, “Diary of A War Dog” might be the most vicious track from the album. Its ferocity with the rapid double bass aided by the savage riffages might be the remorseless side of the band we were left to see. In the calming moments too, the song shines through its basslines and keyboard melodies. On “Valediction”, the strings slowly build from a single violin to a whole section in what feels like a distant memory. A sudden 808 drop changes the tone to something a little more hesitant and fearful and the brass takes us to a darker and darker place until string before bleeding into the final track “Veil of the Reaper”. Channeling the fecority from “Diary of A War Dog”, this one does not waste a single minute to build a landscape of death and desolation, where Reaper stands right in front of our eyes! Again, with powerful riffs and grooves of LoG and synth melodies like CoB works together for the track.

The wall of sound Our Dying World builds has the perfect mix of elements of groove metal and melodic death metal. With a slightly better production on the record, the quality of the album would have increased by ten-folds, though there’s no denying that the record is tight and punchy for the maximum part! While the fast half has a mid-pace to it with more inclination on the melodeath realm, the second half of the album really stands out to me - for being fast, ferocious and violent. Regardless, the end result is an enjoyable record with entertaining offering that will appeal to their fanbase, and certainly bring some new listeners on their side as well.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Website: https://www.facebook.com/ourdyingworldofficial

Genre: Melodic Death Metal / Groove Metal

Label: Independent

Worldwide Release: June 24th, 2022