Harakiri for the Sky is my favorite band. Not just recently, but all-time. Throughout my life I’ve likely listened to over a hundred thousand of hours of music, and throughout that entire journey, I’ve been on a constant hunt for bands and music that make me feel things. I’ve found many truly exceptional emotionally-driven bands, but nobody that consistently reaches the same level as HFTS. They’re special.
I first discovered HFTS shortly after the release of III: Trauma – back in 2016, during one of the worst years of my life. I was stuck in a failing marriage, a horrible job, and was spiraling in my depression and beginning to have thoughts of just ending it all. Not to bring down the review, but I’ve struggled with depression my entire life, and I’ve often turned to music for therapy. It’s been my savior more times than I can count. In 2016, Trauma filled that role for me, and gave me a lifelong comfort album that I still return to regularly. I can’t give one album all the credit, but it was critical in pulling me out of that depression, and helping me find the courage to begin changing my situation.
Two short years later, HFTS released my favorite of their albums, Arson. Thematically, that album aligned so much with what was going on in my real life. I burned it all down and started over again. Arson was the soundtrack to my metamorphosis, and will forever be an album that reminds me of a time when I found the drive to move forward, take risks, and make hard choices that would eventually lead to a much better and happier place, where I currently reside.
Three years passed and Maere was released. I don’t think I’ve ever anticipated an album as much as I did Maere. I had such incredibly high expectations for it, and despite those, it was even better than I was hoping for. I feel like HFTS leveled up with Maere and tapped into a new level of emotionally driven music than I had ever experienced before, even with their previous albums. Even though my life was finally good (although impacted by covid – as we all were), and most of the songs are somber and about loss, it resonated with me on such a deep level. I absolutely love Maere.
In 2022, HFTS released re-recordings of their first two albums, Harakiri for the Sky, and Aokigihara. While I obviously had gone back to their first two albums following discovering the band, I had never spent as much time with these two as I did with the later releases. This all changed when the re-recordings dropped. Throughout all of 2022-2024, these re-recordings were like comfort food for my ears. For years, I’ve made it a goal to listen to almost every extreme metal album that gets released, and sometimes that can start to feel like a job. Often times, I’ll need a palate cleanser album to reinvigorate my love of music, and these two are my ultimate go-to albums. They’re fun, emotional, powerful, and beautiful. I love them both.
So here we are in 2025, and thus far HFTS has released five masterpiece-level albums… Five albums that each mean so much to me in different ways. Now we have Scorched Earth – an album that the band describes as “the conclusion of all the albums we’ve done in the past, all that HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY stands and stood for, musically and lyrically. This is what we stand for, this is what made us, this is our story. “
I think it lives up to that, and more.
Scorched Earth starts off with the track “Heal Me”, and features guest vocals from Tim Yatras of Austere. This song is a classic HFTS track, blending emotional post-black guitarwork with a combined set of harsh vocals from JJ and Tim. Lyrically it focuses on self-reflection and how easy it is to lose who you are, as well as how hard it is to reclaim. I can’t imagine a more relatable track. They released an incredible music video for this song late last year. If you somehow missed it, check it out below:
The next track on the album is “Keep Me Longing” – A sorrowful masterpiece about love found and lost. The soft, beautiful melodies mixed with the pure anger in the vocals really is a perfect encapsulation of who HFTS is. They convey emotion not just with JJ’s intense, passionate shouts, but also with MS’s proficient blend of different musical styles under a blanket of post-black intensity. This is another single that had a music video release, and it’s a devastating (in the best way) video. I love everything about this song, as well as the video.
Moving on to “Without You I’m Just a Sad Song”, a song that is equal parts intense and melodic. It’s the type of song that takes on a life of it’s own and flows organically between pummeling moments of sadness, anger, and quiet. Lyrically, it’s very poetic and seems like a continuation of the emotions experienced in the previous song.
“I’m praying for someone and can’t remember who, but there’s a hole in my heart shaped just like you”
Next we have the most aggressive track on the album “No Graves But the Sea”, a song that is again full of powerful emotion, but at a much faster tempo than we’ve gotten so far in the album. Haunting guitarwork coupled with immense drum work and impassioned shouts gives this song so much life. Picking a favorite song on the album is much like picking a favorite child, but this one is definitely a frontrunner for me.
The Next Track is “With Autumn I’ll Surrender”, which was the third single from the album. It’s beautiful and melodic, and truly captures the feeling of a cold autumn day, while also emphasizing the burning passion that JJ so emotively sings about.
“Sometimes the people around you won’t understand your journey
And Fuck, that’s just fine, cause it was never meant for them
Cause the eyes, useless, when the mind is blind
And by the time we learn to live, it may already be too late”
I adore this song, and there’s another killer music video for this one:
The Penultimate track “I Was Just Another Promise You Couldn’t Keep” continues with the faster paced, more aggressive approach, but still leaves room for the song to breathe. Melodic and contemplative, with a variety of beautiful slower passages, this is one of HFTS’s best songs in their entire catalogue. It’s so emotionally powerful that every time I hear it, I have a physical response to it. It’s not hyperbole to say that the first time I heard it, it almost brought me to tears. Harakiri is touring the US again this year, and I am enthusiastically hoping this will be a track they perform. It would be incredible to hear it live.
The final track on the album is “Too Late For Goodbyes” and features the incredible Serena Cherry from the band Svalbard (who are also excellent if you’ve never heard them). The pairing of her beautiful clean vocals with JJ’s ardent harsh vocal stylings works insanely well together. I feel like this is probably the strongest collaboration that HFTS have done in a song, aside from maybe Silver Needle//Golden Dawn with Gaerea on Maere. This song is aggressive but gorgeous, and a perfect closer to a perfect album. When it’s over, it makes me just want to start the album again from the beginning.
There are also two bonus tracks that will be available on the deluxe editions of the album.
First up is a cover of Radiohead’s “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” featuring PG of Groza, who’s clean singing voice is mesmerizingly haunting. Groza is another band I absolutely love, but I’ve never heard PG sing like this before. It gives me chills every time I listen to it. Not only are the vocals unexpectedly majestic, but MS’s interpretation of the melodies makes this song their own, and JJ’s passionate screams in the background just enhance everything to the limit. This is 100% an example of a cover song being stronger than the original.
The Second bonus track is “Elysian Fields” featuring Daniel Lang from Backwards Charm. I went into this unfamiliar with both Daniel, and the original song, but came out of it seeking to hear the original and compare them.
“Do I have to Die to make you miss me?
Do I have to Die to make your heart beat?”
Poetic, sad, and elegant, this song is incredible. It’s not a metal song by any means, but it’s a great inclusion to the album as a bonus track.
Overall, Scorched Earth is one of, if not the best Harakiri for the Sky albums. It truly is a culmination of everything they’ve released before, and then some. This album is a 10/10 for me, and I’m very excited for everyone else to hear it.
Scorched Earth will be release on January 24th via AOP Records.
Preorder a copy of the new album on the AOP Bandcamp Page or website: https://artofpropaganda.bandcamp.com/
https://shop.aoprecords.de/
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