TRIPLE KILL - Blackened Dawn

TRIPLE KILL

Album: Blackened Dawn

Genre: Heavy / Thrash Metal

Release Date: August 25th, 2023

Country: Australia

Label: Self-Released

Band Links: WEBSITE / BANDCAMP / TWITTER / FACEBOOK

May I introduce you a hot "Video of the Year" contender? Here we go with "Shai-Hulud" by Australian powerhouse TRIPLE KILL, impressively showing how cool heavy metal can be... Enjoy!

The song is taken from their second full-length album, which is called "Blackened Dawn", and saw the light of day on August 25th. Drawing inspiration from the art and escapist media that took the band members through their darkest hours, we get 9 varied, vigorous love letters to different characters and tales that offered them solace and strength.

This being said, they open with the title track, an ode to Frank Miller’s “Batman: Year One”, and like the comic can be seen as the basis for many stories to follow, "Blackened Dawn" also sets the tone for the album, introducing the main motifs. TRIPLE KILL's music is rooted into the wide fields of classical heavy metal, with some thrash escapades in between, like for "...And Hell Followed". The riffs come along with a raw, fat sound, the drums play along groovy and fast forward, and of course they don't miss the chances for fitting guitar solos. While the (clean) singing style has a great, rockin' vibe, it took me a moment to get behind their kind of polyphonic vocal harmonies.

Besides Batman, they also cover themes from Netflix series, films, as well as video games, like He-Man, “Elden Ring”, “Halo”, or “Midnight Mass”. One of my favorites is the already mentioned "Shai-Hulud", a real banger with its mighty riff and infectious groove. Based on Frank Herbert’s novel "Dune", the song was also musically inspired by their fellow Australian Fierce Deity. The other highlight for me is the more balladic track "Dust" because of its anthemic chorus, closing the album on a thoughtful note.

All-together, the Australian five-piece deliver a strong, second record, for which they managed to further evolve their sound and song-writing, making "Blackened Dawn" a powerful and entertaining listen. What stands out for me is their sense for a good story as well as for lovely details, that can be found throughout their music and videos. If you're up for a good fun melted with serious musicianship, you might be right here.

Written by Katha