Review Summary: Wrath of the heavenly messengers
The stern, gothic, and frightening cover of Pure Reason Revolution’s seventh album seems to embody the ideas of wrath and divine retribution that inspired this work. The title of the new record came to band leader Jon Courtney after he and his family attended an Easter church service in Berlin. The sermon spoke of how angels are not actually kind and bright messengers, those cute rosy-cheeked cherubs. On the contrary, they are meant to frighten people, appearing solely to proclaim harsh truths and plunge believers into terror regarding impending events. This is precisely why the overwhelming and intimidating aura of the album’s cover, with its rich blood-red tones, finds its true meaning.
The unsettling imagery sets the mood for the entire record – an astonishing and at times sinister music touching upon themes of duality, salvation, transformation, destruction, and the consequences of human actions. The album is permeated by a sense of constant darkness, but this is done solely to show that sooner or later, people will have to face the consequences of their mistakes and what they would prefer to hide away forever. Because of this, the album sounds completely different from the band’s previous work, the record
Coming Up to Consciousness. That one favored shorter compositions born from Courtney’s dark state following his diagnosis.
Terrifying Angels feels much more aggressive, powerful, and heavy, showing that any change comes through pain.
The musical content of the album directly reveals these dark motifs. The opening track,
Spin Like Fire, sets an uncompromising tone with its frantic prog-metal riffs and furious energy, reflecting the inevitability of retribution.
Black Arrow Acrobats sounds quite different: the first minutes of the track resemble dreamy indie rock until the band suddenly breaks loose, turning the composition into a masterclass in contrast and sharp mood shifts.
Haywire Heart acts more straightforwardly, knocking the listener off their feet with its fierce hard rock that evolves into metallic and cosmic passages, where Annike Shireen’s ethereal vocals serve as a lull before the crushing storm of guitar riffs, as if emphasizing the painful nature of internal changes.
The title track becomes the main focal point of the album: through psychedelic solos and ghostly keyboards, it plunges the listener into a frightening journey through the corners of their own consciousness. Its sliding guitars and eerie atmosphere resemble a descent into an icy cave, after which Pure Reason Revolution pull the pin, delivering a powerful keyboard solo and plunging into a ghostly lull.
Rumination Ruin feels like it accompanies some unfolding battle, where Ravi Kesavaram’s pounding percussion gives the track an almost mechanical, clanking rhythm before the heavy instrumental section begins to tear apart the arrangement, keeping the composition on the verge of complete chaos.
Below Radiance delights with refined piano and the sinister sparseness of electronic instrumentation, full of melancholy and cold futuristic textures. They are countered by warm, muted vocals that dramatically gather all their strength toward the finale. The album concludes with the colossal fifteen-minute epic
Hold Your Wrath, as if looping this atmosphere of paranoia and unfolding madness through unexpected transitions: a rising storm suddenly gives way to quiet ambient music, through which jazz drums and stealthy guitar leads break before returning to a heavy roar and ending with radiant vocal harmonies that put the final period on the album.
It is only fair to say that
Terrifying Angels is a success. And not because the band somehow managed to reach former heights and even surpass past works, but because of how masterfully the musicians combined their recognizable signature style with fresh ideas. The record turned out rich, vibrant, and full of great discoveries that worthily continue the legacy of Pure Reason Revolution. One can only hope that these angels will not become the heralds of future trials and tribulations – we can handle that task just fine on our own.
