Putting out music that challenges the listener is always a risk. The chance of success is more likely to be dwarfed by the near certainty of some kind of failure. When She Must Burn released their self titled EP a while back they gambled on people liking their mix of brutal deathcore interspersed with softer symphonic vocals. That roll of the dice paid off and they began to accrue fans at a massive rate of knots.
Following a successful tour with Cradle Of Filth, keyboardist – and crucially, backing vocalist – Aimy Blair Miller decided to leave the band. This might explain why new album ‘Grimoire’ all but lacks the very thing that set this group apart in the first place and it’s hard not to see this record as letting the pack catch up. When you play the album more though it has a wonderful quality of growing on you.
The main reason for this is the arrangements being more traditional than the oft touted black metal predilection for free form, making even the most brutal music easier to understand. The songs also have a natural flow to them too; in very loose terms, they’re accessible. The down side is a feeling that you’ve heard it all before no matter how good it is. The inventive spark has been replaced by nothing more than solidity.
Helping things stay above a thumbs down is the production, which unpicks the wall of sound at critical moments making this an album that is supremely heavy and perfectly listenable even through cheap and cheerful in-ear headphones. Not many people get to play music on high end equipment these days so it’s nice when the mix works at any level. High on quality but lacking the punch and originality of earlier work She Must Burn have at least not gone into free-fall.   They can take heart from the fact that they’ve overcome losing such a key member of the band without imploding and ‘Grimoire’ provides a solid base camp ready for an attempted climb to more success.
GARY TRUEMAN