I don’t know what’s up with our dear readers around the world, but in this lion’s den, it’s hotter than an unshaven sheep in a bread bakery. It’s hotter than Steel‘s withering gaze every time Dear Hollow gives good reviews to deathcore. It’s hotter than your sexy crush telling you her parents completely approve of you, and that she wants a wholesome marriage and a family. My AC has been broken for over a month now, which means my only companions are sweat, misery, and the promo pit. Consequently, my personal enjoyment of much more wintry (or even fall) black metal has fallen by the wayside, as bands like Coldworld or Panopticon just don’t hit the same way when you spend every night praying for sleep and basting in your own juices. As if a spiritual answer to my cries, new outfit Sunscorched have arrived with a dollop of Old-West-themed, Arizona-originated atmospheric black metal. Needless to say, one glance at that name had me snatching this one up immediately, so saddle up your horses and get ready to circle the wagons as we see just how bad these bloody lands are.
The Blood of the Badlands sound is that of a slightly more straightforward Wayfarer album as produced by Nechochwen. While the compositional approaches lend themselves to comparisons with the seminal American Gothic, the chord progressions are more straightforward, and the production much more raw. The Heart of Akamon has itself all over the actual sound, with full chords which ring out in treble-heavy presentation but never lose themselves in tinny warbles, still sounding thick and full. The drumming of Rory James is well articulated, with good thunk and clang in his kit as he alternates between his fills and rolls, with a lot of fun to be had in his hi-hat and china beats which often evoke the galloping of wagons cascading down the hills. Vocalist Austin Kruger has an excellent bellowing shriek, mixed between the arpeggios and tremolos and containing enough reverb to evoke the mood of long-forgotten souls wandering the hills. Remarkably light on the expected gimmicky instrumentation—beyond the bookending instrumentals, which feature smatterings of acoustic guitars among what sounds like unplugged electric—Sunscorched wield their songwriting skills to suit the mood and atmosphere of the Badlands.
Blood of the Badlands by Sunscorched
In those songs, Sunscorched manage to paint a vivid aural picture without ever doing anything out of the ordinary. “Vultures that Circle my Grave” transitions into a delightful major chord progression which sounds optimistic in the face of oppression and daily struggle without losing an ounce of its moshability. Highlight “Slaughter at Camp Grant” features a punk-infused main refrain which sounds violent while evoking the vastness of an Old West starry sky, transitioning from rapid-fire melodies to a progression which comes with brute force and necessary antagonism. “The Gallows Tree” features a depressive lead which does most of the talking before the vocals ever kick in. While repetition is a major tool in the box of Sunscorched, the majority of these riffs and melodies justify running themselves back as they emphasize the all-encompassing nature of the violence and exploration of that time period. Every single song comes decorated with a key melodic theme, from the inevitability of “Gallows…” to the full-speed-ahead onslaught of “Slaughter…”, firmly evoking a narrative to the listener which would be just as serviceable were Blood of the Badlands served as an instrumental piece.
There’s only one thing stopping Sunscorched from landing on true greatness in their first outing: Both penultimate track “Thousand Year Drought” and the instrumental title track “Blood of the Badlands” are far too repetitive and self-referential, and it’s genuinely disappointing. In the case of the former, there’s what seems to be a melodic reference1 to the Styx song “Renegade”, with a very familiar tune coded in the main lead, which is dope, but is promptly beaten right into the desert sand. Additionally, the main chugging climax features the exact same root notes as the one found in “Slaughter…”, making it smack of the earlier riff, but somehow more violent and less interesting. Closing track “Blood of the Badlands” is gorgeous, mood-setting, and eerie, but repeats itself an unneeded amount of times without genuinely evolving into anything.
Normally, an album is held down by an overall lack of quality. My saying “these last two songs don’t pass muster” only speaks to the sheer quality of all that comes before, and is by no means a major detraction in the overall experience. Sunscorched have made me ready to join their posse on my first listen, enduring the sweltering radiation and pavement-amplifying heatwaves with their soundtrack of melancholy by my side. Some course corrections on their repetitive habits will have their pistols loaded and ready to strike gold and oil, and I, for one, have gleefully hitched my wagon up to see where we will explore from here.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 11 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: The Bölverk Collective
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: August 28th, 2026
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