::REVIEW::

Malakhim’s second album, And in Our Hearts the Devil Sings, stands as a towering affirmation of purpose from a band already known for precision and conviction. Four years removed from Theion, the Umeå quintet refine their vision of orthodox Swedish black metal into something sharper, darker, and far more brutal. Their sound remains rooted in that late-’90s melodic severity, equal parts No Fashion grandeur and Solistitium malice, but what was once promise now feels absolute.
The opening title track is a ritual in itself, eight minutes of searing escalation, balancing melodic complexity with destructive focus. “The New Temple” and “Into Darkness We Depart” follow with unstoppable momentum, riffs coiling and detonating in perfect formation. The death metal undercurrent of Theion persists, though here it’s absorbed into a more unified design, less hybridization, more synthesis. When “Angel of the Bottomless Pit” drops, it’s clear that no excess survives the band’s knife, with every tremolo line and every drum hit serving the larger structure.
Engineer M. Norman’s production maintains the grime and gravity essential for authenticity but pushes clarity to its limit, allowing each melodic thread to burn clean through the madness. The closing “The Firmament Submits” seals the record in near liturgical majesty, the final proof of a group both disciplined and possessed.
Malakhim’s lyrical theme, Yetzer Hara, man’s inherent pull toward evil, mirrors their compositional ethos of order harnessed to chaos and precision weaponized by spirit. And in Our Hearts the Devil Sings isn’t just another act of devotion to the old flame, it’s a concretion of black metal’s continued vitality, an unflinching work by a band who understand that mastery means leaving nothing to chance.

Review written by FuegoCasa in collaboration with Headbangers Australia in November 2025.