- Country: USA
- Style: Doom metal
- Label: Relapse Records
- Release date: 8 June 2018
There is no way to separate this album from its backstory. In early 2017 Mike Scheidt was hospitalised with a severe intestinal illness, and much of Our Raw Heart was written as he recovered. You can hear it. This is doom that has stared into the dark and decided, against the odds, to be grateful.
“Ablaze” opens with a riff that feels like dragging a body uphill, Scheidt switching between that soaring high voice and a guttural roar. “The Screen” is the angriest track here, mean and lurching, but the album’s heart is “Beauty in Falling Leaves”, a vast, slow-moving piece that builds from near silence to an emotional peak that’s genuinely hard to sit through without a lump in your throat.
Seven tracks, well over an hour, and hardly a dull moment. The co-production with Billy Barnett gives the bass real weight without smothering the guitars, and the closing title track ends on something close to joy. Their eighth album, and very possibly their best.
Best tracks:
Ablaze
The Screen
Beauty in Falling Leaves
Our Raw Heart
Author’s rating: 9.1/10
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