We live in dark times; times of war, pandemics, grief and horror. These are the days of division, where we turn against each other in politically driven hatred and against ourselves, choking on a social media diet of self-loathing and isolation. Through our ever-glowing screens we watch the crumbling of virtue and the slow, agonised death of decency and honour. The UK’s resolute and relentless kings of thrash, Solitary, have tapped into the thick, black blood that pulses sluggishly through the fat and filth congested veins of society. They have stared into the alleyways, the cellars and the broken minds of our youth and forged their hardest, heaviest and most unflinching album yet. This is their hymn to a dying world, their soundtrack to the end of days…this is Embrace The Darkness!
Opening with ‘III.XXIII.MMXX’, an intro heavy with portent that leads us back to the days of lockdown and its shocking, unforeseen consequences, Embrace The Darkness then leaps straight into its momentous title track and the strides taken by Solitary are immediately apparent. The individual performances from each band member are stunning and the song craft is masterful. Despite the breathtaking ferocity on display there’s a considered depth and maturity to these songs that lifts Embrace The Darkness to unprecedented heights. Thirty years deep into their tumultuous career, Solitary are hitting new peaks and delivering like never before. From the bare-knuckle ultra aggression of ‘Settle Scores The Old Way’ to the foreboding ‘Virtues’ which tackles the harrowing issues of abuse within a framework of classic Solitary riffs, adorned with a vicious, barbed wire solo, it only takes one listen to know that this is the finest album Solitary have made to date. The absolute savagery and incendiary energy of the late album pairing ‘The Disappeared’ and ‘Section 21’ is utterly exhilarating, despite the forbidding shadows that lie between and behind every voracious vocal line and cataclysmic drum beat. There is no respite throughout Embrace The Darkness, no pause for breath or tranquil interlude, it is simply devastating. Finishing with the confrontational ‘Filtering Hindsight’, a caustic indictment of our post-brexit, post-covid societal car crash, this is thrash metal at its powerful, potent, glorious best – lean, mean, embedded with inescapable hooks and laced with deadly melody.
Solitary have renewed their partnership with producer Simon Efemey (Napalm Death, Paradise Lost, Deceased etc) and Embrace The Darkness sounds magnificent – the vocals have an extra edge of anger and potential violence, the guitars snarl like rabid dogs, the drum beats are infused with a skull-cracking thunder and the bass is a powerful, looming presence. Also returning to the team is artist Koot (Saxon, Girlschool, The Almighty etc) who has created one of his finest pieces, capturing the blackened spirit of Embrace The Darkness in his cover art. Look out for exclusive physical format tracks – with the vinyl boasting the punishing ‘Divided And Demented’ and the CD featuring a ripping run through of The Exploited’s ‘Beat The Bastards’ that’s not to be missed. When Solitary unleash this beast of an album on September 6th nowhere will be safe from its claws. Prepare to Embrace The Darkness!