Black Sites emerged in 2017 with In Monochrome, showcasing founder Mark Sugar’s knack for bridging old and modern takes on heavy/progressive metal. Even early on the band was hard to pin down, as it encompassed a wide range of influences from across the metal spectrums. With each successive album Sugar has tweaked the approach, sometimes opting for a more direct approach while letting the progressive elements sprawl outwards more on other efforts. 2024’s The Promised Land? fell closer to the latter end of the spectrum, with its title track breaking the eleven minute mark, but on follow-up For Eternity Black Sites seems to have found a middle ground of sorts. Now featuring a refreshed lineup, For Eternity adopts some more doom and gothic leaning elements while retaining its previous influences, making for a more nuanced and slow burning listen.
The lineup that Sugar has assembled on For Eternity is completely different from its predecessor, but he has seasoned musicians helping to bring everything to life. Bassist José Salazar returns from the Exile period of the band alongside his Professor Emeritus band mate Lee Smith on guitar, and the ever-busy Chris Black rounds things out on drums. Black also acts as co-producer this time around, and with Dan Swanö on mixing and mastering duties For Eternity really pops out from your stereo in ways that complement the material. This is immediately evident on opener “When It Calls”, which has moodier guitar melodies that bring in more of a gothic or progressive metal slant before the booming rhythm section comes in to add noticeable weight to the song. What stood out to me early on was that despite the influx of heavy metal adjacent bands pivoting to full gothic territory in recent years, Black Sites instead brings in some of these elements as stylistic flourishes and the backbone of For Eternity remains rooted in a lot of doom, progressive metal, and classic heavy metal. It does mean there are quite a few moodier and more introspective moments compared to previous material, as tracks like “Giving Up the Ghost” and “Unanswered for Eternity” sprawl outwards at a methodical pace and really let the haunting melodies take the spotlight.
Things aren’t all introspective and slow the whole way through though, as “Aquarius Betrayed” and “Silent Wars” have a bit more of that heavy metal gallop and add some noticeably more muscular riffing and drumbeats into the mix. The former is one of my favorite songs on the album, as the way it transitions from pounding heavy metal to airier acoustic guitar around the two-minute mark is infectious and reminds me of a combination between classic prog and Ashbury. “Blades (For the Chosen Ones)” also ups the groove factor, but the guitar leads also have an almost extreme metal edge to them that meshes well with the mellower side of things. Compared to past Black Sites albums For Eternity finds this interesting balance between briefer, more direct offerings where the emphasis is on a couple of specific hooks and slightly longer ones where the arrangements do sprawl outwards, but things do feel a bit more reigned in overall. Admittedly this did feel like an album of halves for me initially, with the first half having some of the more immediate hooks and earworm moments. But having spent a solid week or so with the album on regular rotation, some of the smaller details on later cuts like “When Prophecy Fails” has made them stand out more and made them grow on me significantly.
Mark Sugar’s singing has been another element that made Black Sites stand out from the beginning, and he continues to give a strong performance on For Eternity. He has one of those booming singing pitches that towers above the instrumentals, really taking hold of you from the beginning and keeping your attention the entire way through. At certain points the gruffer pitches give me hints of Phil Swanson (Vestal Claret, ex-Sumerlands), but there are other approaches throughout the album that continue to give Sugar a feel of his own. I especially love how the vocals ebb and flow on tracks like “Giving up the Ghost”, where things go from soaring and powerful to subdued and vulnerable, really making things feel more dynamic. You could argue that there are times where the singing overpowers everything else, but these are isolated cases and the album as a whole has both vocal sections and riffs that stand out.
For Eternity is arguably less progressive than its immediate predecessor, yet it took me some time to conclude how much of an impact this album had on me. The early listens revealed a moodier and slightly more doom-centric take on things where the hooks weren’t as immediate, but over time I found myself drawn back more and more as different details jumped out. As a result, Black Sites’ latest has become a July favorite that’s dominated much of my stereo time and its clear the new lineup Sugar has assembled is as strong as ever. It may still be hard to pin down everything the group is doing on this album, but if you’re a fan of everything from classic heavy metal and doom to some of the more modern variants there is plenty here worth listening to.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg