Olhava – Sacrifice (Review)

Olhava are a Russian ambient/post-black metal band and this is their sixth album.

It’s always a pleasure to hear a new Olhava album. I thoroughly enjoyed both 2021’s Frozen Bloom and 2020’s Reborn, so am more than happy to be able to experience the immersive immensity of Sacrifice. Sacrifice offers a rich feast of atmospheric, ambient, and post-black metal/blackgaze.

Both of the previous records were lengthy affairs, but Sacrifice just beats out Reborn, with a total duration of 86 minutes. However, instead of containing only four songs like its two predecessors, Sacrifice offers up eight tracks in total – four epic-length songs separated by four interludes. Normally I wouldn’t be happy about interlude tracks, but here they are decent-length mood pieces in their own right, and simply enrich and maintain the album’s overall atmosphere – the final one is particularly good.

Of course, atmosphere is the key word when considering Olhava, and Sacrifice is dripping with the stuff. To say that this is an atmospheric album, while accurate, doesn’t really capture the layers of absorbing depth and feeling that Sacrifice consists of. Olhava’s use of synths and effervescent-yet-melancholic shimmering blackened fragility never fails to move me, and the repetitive hypnotic nature of the music is entrancing. This is one long journey into expansive, captivating sound, one the fully envelops you as you descend through the running time and quickly achieve full immersion in its welcoming embrace.

There’s not much more to say about this really – if you’re unconvinced by this style then Sacrifice will likely not sway you otherwise, but if it hits the spot for you like it does me, then this is enthralling. Sacrifice is another firm win for the band’s discography.