The Edge | Artist: Black Water Rising | Genre: Rock | Year: 2025
With brutally heavy riffs and lyrics of scathing intent, Black Water Rising return from hiatus rocking their best album yet.
A lone man stands before a canyon of skulls in Black Water Rising's The Edge album cover

The Edge

Perhaps fittingly for a band so obsessed with ominous themes, Black Water Rising‘s newest album is an abject lesson in not tempting fate. After all, I bemoaned the “agonising” four year wait for their previous album, whereas The Edge here took twice as long to arrive. Me and my big mouth!

Any metalhead who has been purchasing the singles since 2021 (!) will have already known this new release was going to sound great. In fact, with the YouTube drop of Slow Slide, you could listen to half of the full album before it was officially available to buy. Information provided on the first single, Paralyzed (a methodically heavy song screaming in frustration at the COVID-19 lockdowns of yesteryear) suggest the release plans were once very different. But whatever the story is there, the story here is that The Edge turned out great in the end. Alongside that aforementioned single which started it all are the accompanying singles, You Found the Sun, Hail Mary, and Jokes On You (which gets ‘best track’ honours thanks to its pounding guitars and tormenting lyrics).

If the album ended there it would still be worth recommending, but the new material is likewise strong. I’ve already mentioned Slow Slide which got the music video treatment. It’s a perfect opener with its shredding guitars and delightfully downbeat lyrics concerning one of the band’s evergreen (or should that be “everblack”?) topics of drug abuse. Cynical follows on with its own beautifully acidic lyrics, another catchy chorus awaits in Headstrong, and I simply must commend Seeking a Shill for having the best single riff on the whole album. That’s no small feat considering the awesome riffs it competes with!

Black Water Rising have always chosen good title tracks and The Edge itself is no exception. It’s an eerier cut than the rest on this record; one that evokes the moodier sounds of the band’s self-titled debut album from 2008. If there’s one gripe to be had, it would be the closing track, Danger Zone which finishes things on a slightly more meandering note than what preceded it.

But never mind the nitpicks because the only truly disappointing thing about The Edge is how long it took to reach our ears! This time I won’t tempt fate and simply declare it as a rocking good time with my highest recommendation possible to purchase and enjoy.

The Edge on Black Water Rising.com »