Bright And Black – The Album
Release Date: 26th January 2024
Label: Self Released
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Genre: Orchestral, Symphonic, Classical.
FFO: Fleshgod Apocalypse, Apocalyptica, Avkrvst.
Review By: Ross Bowie
Bright And Black is a totally unique experience of an album that is made out of pure love and excitement for orchestral music. Described as a “Symphony Orchestra, Composers from the world of metal, a wild conductor, wild soloist, attitude and talent” and to be honest, it’s hard to describe this project any other way. This album was written by a plethora of different metal musicians from Apocalyptica, Opeth, Meshuggah and Waitain to name a few directly for the Baltic Sea Philharmonic Orchestra. This is a project bringing together different musicians from the Baltic regions to try something new, and for that alone the album should be commended.
Despite being titled The Album, it for the most part sounds more like a soundtrack than your standard album format. Orchestral music and metal music are two worlds that, despite lacking much common ground, find themselves coming together frequently, but it’s never been done like this before. Having the different composers write directly for the orchestra gives songs a specific metal feel. Armies of the Preposterous features Tomas Hakke and Dick Lövgren from Meshuggah and the track sounds exactly like how you think an orchestra playing Meshuggah would sound: Dizzying, hectic and crushing in only the way that band know how to do. There are moments where you can tell apart the musicians that are more familiar with classical territory Can’t Explain This has a beautiful violin melody and is more emotive that the tracks that come before it while Bloodgrind has a pumping hardcore drumbeat playing through the majority of the song and even has time to rip out a guitar solo.
As the album title suggests, this is a collection of songs about balance, the heaviness and darkness these musicians are used to working with and the beauty and feel that stringed instruments can allow you to incorporate. Bright And Black relies more on vibe than song power, but that is to be expected from an instrumental piece of music. Collateral Damage sounds like it should be playing over a Hollywood blockbuster when the protagonist is getting the gang together to fight the big bad once and for all, while The Secret has a dark and sinister aroma around its music, leaving you with that feeling that something is watching your every move.
As well as releasing the music, a DVD about the making of the album is to be released, filmed by Swedish filmmaker Kirke Ailio Rodwel. This is to display the “creative vision, the strike and struggle” that went into putting this together. This is an album that acts as a great soundtrack rather than an album you would pick and choose specific songs to listen to, while offering different layers and takes on this melding of two different styles. This is a pure passion project from very talented people all across the metal spectrum, a true one of a kind experience. 
(3.5 / 5)
