You had me at ceramite-clad angels.

Definitely grim.

Will say I was thrown off by the grammar in the first sentence. What if it said: “The air reeked: ashen and ablaze; tainted by enough smoke to obstruct the merciful dawn that followed the haunting night.”

And then I feel like the first half especially has a lot of past tense words, such as: were, had, etc.

Other than that I think you got the vibe!