Austria's Harakiri For The Sky has been absolutely fucking slaying since 2011. A pulverized slush of black metal, drizzled with atmospheric post-rock stylings are on the menu for their fourth studio album, Arson. While the year in metal is only in its infancy, this progressive spine-snapper of a record will be a damn hard act to follow.
Comprised of duo Matthias M.S Sollak (primary instrumentalist and arranger) and Michael V. Wahntraum (lyricist and vocalist), affectionately known as J.J., Harakiri For The Sky turn the generic black metal formula on its head by incorporating a vast array of influences from post-rock to hardcore, even so far into left field as indie.
"We just want to express ourselves without the need to label ourselves, and keeping things kind of personal is important to us," Sollak tells Metal Injection. "We don’t need to fulfill stereotypes like some viking metal bands do. We don’t have any stereotypes to fulfill. If we want to write indie songs we just do it, and if people judge us for that, it’s fine. It’s important for us to be able to do what we want to do.
"I think what we make is a very colourful mix of all the stuff we listen to. We take all the bits and parts of different types of music – singer-songwriter, indie rock, black metal – and then just mix it up and do our own thing."
While not yet reaching household name status to your casual metalhead, Harakiri For The Sky has earned a cult following, particularly in their native Europe, largely gained through blistering live performances, and an unshakeable fucking attitude that no audience is underserving of having their minds blown. Egos are for the rich, the record-holders and the well-endowed, after all.
"If you always do the same type of show, no matter if there are 50 or 200 or 500 people, then the 50 people at the small show will enjoy and maybe tell their friends," Sollak says. "The next time you play in the city there will be more and more, and that’s how you gain an audience, not by being an arrogant asshole like bands are here. I’m serious, there are bands who put out one shitty demo, and they try to be rockstars and behave like assholes. That’s not how you build up a reputation, that’s not how you get close to people.
"The most important thing is that you keep the spirit alive, that you still have fun with what you’re doing. That it doesn’t become pure business, and you just do it because you have to release an album every year or something like that. I would say it’s an honest thing that we do. When people like it we’re super happy about that."
Check out pre-release singles "You Are The Scares", "Heroin Waltz" and "Tomb Omnia", and pick up Arson when it's released worldwide through AOP Records on February 16th.
