The Black Heart Procession – Six

The Black Heart Regression

The Black Heart Procession’s first album in three years returns to their trend of numeric album titles. The fan anticipated Six also hails the return of their distinctive gloom-and-doom downtempo style. Dark and a little eerie, Six emerges just in time for Halloween and the advent of Autumn.

A simple piano number opens the album soft and slowly, the wholly yawn-inspiring “When You Finish Me.” “Wasteland” follows, another slow jam with a nice steady bass rhythm and choir-like chanting. As Six continues the tempo picks up a little, especially mid-album as on “All Me Steps,” which is catchy and ominous at the same time making use of horns, strings, and percussives that are atypical of a BHP song. It recedes again towards the end with “Iri Sulu,” a short organ and piano number that plays like a morose outro.

While longtime fans may be gratified with the homecoming of the band’s traditional sound, Six is nothing The Black Heart Procession haven’t already done. As if a copy and paste of their melodramatic style, this sorely awaited album is a bit of a letdown. That’s not to say the album is entirely rubbish—there are definitely some gems here, it’s merely lacking in the creativity department.