She Must Burn – Grimoire

Laying angelic female vocals beside venomous male screams, She Must Burn are taking black metal on a new adventure.

There’s a courageous spirit at the heart of She Must Burn, a determination to see their risks through to the bitter end. Female fronted black metal in itself so rarely hits the mainstream media, let alone the festival stage, but these London daredevils will open Download Festival’s fourth stage this year on the back of a stunning debut album, ‘Grimoire’.

Expertly blending now-departed Aimy Miller’s dreamy tones with Joe Sinclair’s menacing screams through ‘The Wicked’ and a masterful riff to boot, this isn’t an outfit you’d like to bump into in a dark alley… or even a well-lit one. The siren call throughout ‘From the Grave’ almost reinvents Nightwish for a blackened palate, while ‘After Death’ holds Aimy’s most captivating moments when every instrument drops to leave her isolated at centre stage.

Stepping into the light beside the likes of Bleeding Through and Carnifex, they’ve even dared to open ‘Gloom’ with a relentless blast beat to welcome their Make Them Suffer ally Sean Harmanis into the mix. It’s not long before the unstoppable venom of ‘Roseblood’ welcomes in the sultry symphonics that give this band their atmospheric trademark.

Beckoning you to join them down among the lapping flames in the depths of hell, ‘Hallowed Ground’ narrates an internal battle through an incredibly orchestrated instrumental onslaught, blistering in pace at times. “You left me here to die on my own,” cries ‘Victoria’ through a palpable despair anthem akin to Architects’ devastating brand of metalcore. Solemn male cleans slice through the atmosphere to add that truly human, mortal aspect that blackened metal so often abandons.

Armed with the bravery to carry the female-fronted torch for blackened metalcore, She Must Burn’s debut is a not-so-gentle reminder that their feisty genre won’t stand in the shadows for much longer.

Recommended tracks: Victoria, After Death, The Wicked

Track listing:

Ritual

The Wicked

Gloom

Hallowed Grounds

Victoria

A False Heaven

From the Grave

Roseblood

After Death

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