In embracing profaned interpretations of ancient religious texts and parables Italian/Polish black metal quartet AMALEKIM revise scriptural context as the tribulations of a sinister cult of power, kings and sycophants preying on lesser minds with false hope. The manipulation and indoctrination of fellowes by way of songs of worship, chants in praise of the warmth shared between god and mankind, appears to be at the heart of their third full-length album. Theme is not the unholy strength of ‘Shir Hashirim‘, though, at least not as much as their vision of heavily atmospheric and guitar driven melodic black metal, a directive which bridges some love for auld classics with modern formae unto modestly repeatable and pleasurably consistent result.

Amalekim were founded by the still quite young vocalist/guitarist Mróz circa 2020 aiming for their own vision of ‘true black metal’ centered around the writings of Michael Ford and invoking a sort of Chaos Gnostic/Kabbalistic spiritus to start with their debut LP (‘HVHI‘, 2021) and I say that based on the art, some of the lyrics and the healthy inspiration taken from Dissection on a few songs (re: “Azi Dhaka”). Their line-up shifted beyond that first LP but solidified quickly by the end of 2021, always containing both Polish and Italian membership. While I enjoyed the style of that debut quite a bit much’d changed by the time the band’s second album (‘Avodah Zarah‘, 2023) was readied and their book was rewritten, both in terms of the lyrical focus and overall style which now took on dissonant and atmospheric strain rather than entirely focus on rapturous melodicism. I’d written about the album in brief around the time of its release and up front, we could consider ‘Shir Hashirim‘ as a follow-up to its style and lyrical focus.

The major point of praise for ‘Avodah Zorah‘ back in 2023 was the pleasurable continuity of the album, it’d simply flowed well between its modern treatments of melodic black metal from a mystic-spiritual point of curiosity. Their level of craft wasn’t so far from the ambitious tides of Voodus or Outlaw in some respects, retaining a brilliantly dramatic sense of movement almost exclusively directed by their lead guitar positioning. Ringing dissonance and dramatic cliff-scaling riff runs were the only substance I’d connected with from that album, the atmosphere was charged to say the least and these comments and observations generally also apply to the refined hand of ‘Shir Hashirim‘. If you’d enjoyed the more ‘meloblack’-bent core of songs like “Psalm VII – Hallel LeQuayn” on that previous album that’d more-or-less best preface the direction of this next tome.

The recessed and backgrounded impact of the vocals on the previous album have been largely resolved as we encounter opener “Chant I: Ra’al Zorem“, a slightly more throated rasp which is accompanied by various layers of accompaniment throughout the song. Much as I hate clashing dual-vocal spume in modern black metal application here they’ve done well to add to the big opening moment, though the upshot and ever-scaling post-black leads which whine and bend throughout the song’s floaty push ultimately do take over their grand entrance. When I say “modern black metal” I am largely speaking to the melodic devices at the center of each song, ineffectual dregs of atmospheric black metal’s more cloying spectrum offset by a classicist (read: 90’s) melodic black sense of anthemic stature. This is most effective for my own taste within pieces like “Chant III: Mesharet HaShilton”, where all acts in support of the lead guitar’s ringing resolve of phrase.

With that said the most obvious “single” and ear-worming perpetrator comes in almost Watain-esque fashion as we step direction into the portal created by “Chant IV: Sodot HaYekum”, another anthemic crossing of old-and-new idealism with a simple hook firing off right as the song starts. The moment is simple, repetitious and the rest of the song doesn’t necessarily seek to outdo its grand entrance. This is essentially my experience with most of the pieces on this album wherein each bear glorious dressings, a pensive moodiness built atop sharp melodic leads which stick, delivered via an intensity which is inspired despite some by-the-numbers movements here and there. That high point of intensity is cranked up doubly via “Chant V: Tanur Nitzchi” immediately after, its wavering main lead phrase being one of the more haunting rants on the record.

Without a lyric sheet and more than a general prompt of inverting conventional “religious wisdom” I’ve no clear understanding of the themes of this album in the context of black metal otherwise. At face value some titles and associated parables are seemingly reverent, the title (‘The Song of Songs‘) for example is a specific reference to songs of worship (re: the love shared by god and mankind) in the Tanakh and without a clever twist of phrase provided we’ve only the tone of the album to interpret what that might mean. Again, you’ll likely have lyrics to interpret and these observations may be considered specific to the review process. The album cover, another excellent painting from Igor Datkiewicz in depiction of King Solomon’s test of the two mothers (via Kings 3:16–28), suggests an alternate understanding of the parable. Questioning power and taking a lens to the implications of divine-appointed law and a (fabled) ruler’s misuse of power are admirable thoughts though in this case the logic of the interpretation is awkward on approach, akin to fan theorem rather than a total subversion of meaning. At the very least I’d needed more context to fully ascertain the value of this album’s theme.

Once again consistency and simplicity of form with moderate use of repetition ensures this whole experience is a pleasure and a repeatable affair despite much of it blurring in mind over time. Past breakthroughs are echoed louder herein and this alone is a success for the artist. What ‘Shir Hashirim‘ provides beyond its predecessor is escalation, a sense of intensifying worship or praise chant-over-chant ’til the eighth piece plays the album out. While much of Amalekim‘s fixation defaults to its showcase for lead guitar voicing above most else the handful of simple melodic metal guitar hooks which do fire off at the peaking heat of the full listen are all effectively stated, at least above-average in their deployment. Though I don’t entirely understand the theme of this record the music is nonetheless inspired, ambitious yet steadfast in its continuation of what’d been achieved on the band’s second LP. A moderately high recommendation.

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