Daydream Flowers by A Rose Dying in the Rain and Sadness
An Exciting Look into Black Metal's Present and Future
By the end of 2023, your TikTok feed will include alt kids dancing to… wait for it… black metal. You heard it here first. Before I found Sadness, I never would have expected a black metal ascendency in the near future, but this project has me not only expecting the wave but also excited for its arrival. Far from being some sort of pop sellout, Sadness utilizes their extreme metal expertise alongside their broader songwriting know-how in order to present a convincing look into the future of one of metal’s most exciting genres.
Taking cues from diverse influences such as post hardcore, post rock, and emo, Sadness crafts a sound equal parts consumable and thoughtful. Especially on “5:00 pm on a friday,” which presents itself as an indie banger underlaid with black metal rhythm guitar, Sadness shirks all categories and rules to produce an unforgettable composition. Surely, the inclusion of intelligible, sung vocals in such a crossover extreme metal cut will raise controversy within the heavy music community. However, Sadness’s work here really speaks for itself, justifying its strange ideas through masterful execution.
Sadness’s music in hand, black metal finally arrives to knock on the heavy, gilded door of the mainstream. A genre founded by a tight-knit group of Norwegian terrorists that gained notoriety for constantly killing each other and themselves, black metal in many ways speaks directly to the spirit of the 2020s. With research indicating that loneliness has risen to an all-time high, a genre of depressive metal which traditionally arises out of individual musicians recording on their own home equipment (i.e. working completely alone) seems like a slam dunk. Additionally, decreased social cohesion and increased extremism around the world point towards a favorable environment for the breakout of a genre which previously housed fascists, communists, and nihilistic terrorists. Either the time for black metal is now, or black metal’s time will never come.
Also, I don’t really mention the A Rose Dying in the Rain half of this album in my article, but it’s solid too. There’s some great classic blackgaze sounds in there.