Writing back in April, we described how Eternity In The Lake Of Fire, the latest album from Bitter Calm, represented something of a sea change for the band. Lead single ‘Salt’ still revolved around weighty themes of love and death, but the more melodic sound represented a brighter tone for the Birmingham, Alabama outfit. But make no mistake, sunshine and rainbows this is not. You only have to look at the album’s title to understand that. “Rather than a compensatory turn to positivity,” we wrote in a later preview of single ‘Surrender’, “the tone is something won in the hardest of manners, brightness not as an absence of dark but rather the strange marvel at being alive to record at all.”
With the album out now via Earth Libraries, it is clear this mood persists across the breadth of the songs. Eternity In The Lake Of Fire is a record set against the volatile rains peculiar to Birmingham. Shrouded in the shadow of an oncoming downpour, beset by a strange atmospheric pressure, always anticipating the next deluge. But also having learnt that such ferocious storms tend to burn themselves out quickly, leaving nothing but a dripping quiet. The Bitter Calm sound mirrors this climate, not only matching intensity and placidity, but capturing those interstitial periods—be they foreboding build-ups or shocked aftermaths. Take a song like ‘Sinner’, which blends the confessional weight of Greet Death or Pedro the Lion with almost orchestral detail, like a storm cloud leavened by a transcendent ray of light.
hey man,
i can take it
it’s my pain that keeps this world turning
how’ve you not considered?
i’m a sinner,
i should die for you
But it’s impossible to talk about Eternity In The Lake of Fire without considering the imagery of its title. Not just a descent into the underworld but a one-way ticket. In many ways, the album plays as an attempt by lead Michael Harp to accept the underworld as the default scenery. An effort to perhaps hurdle the worst of despair by coming to understand their lot. See how ‘Surrender’ emerges from the bleak ‘Convenient’, no more reassured against the oncoming black, but finding some solace in embracing it and relinquishing the fight to stay above ground. And if the album charts such a process, then opener ‘Nothin’ is something of a mission statement. There are no joyous epiphanies or arcs towards salvation. There is only the fact of life.
Eternity In The Lake of Fire is out now via Earth Libraries and available from the Bitter Calm Bandcamp page.
