NUCLEAR BLAST
Svalbard have never been afraid to veer into the darkness. While they’ve been no strangers to looking outward at the realities of an unjust world, album number four instead saw the band focusing inward via this devastatingly beautiful untangling of what it means to live with poor mental health. Intricate and gorgeously intense, The Weight Of The Mask felt as viscerally raw as an open wound, flushed with sweeping blackgaze guitars, juddering percussion and lyrics so richly emotional that tears almost pooled on our cheeks. Bleak though it may have been, this album was proof of that innate human ability to find beauty in the things we often leave hidden in the shadows.