poniedziałek, 3 czerwca 2024

A review of Akhlys ‘House of the Black Geminus’

 

Akhlys

‘House of the Black Geminus’

Debemur Morti 2024

 


Have you ever watched ‘The Shawshank Redemption’? Of course you have. It's one of those films you can go back to over and over again. A guy sits in a cell and chisels away at the wall for years before finally achieving his goal. What does it have to do with the new Akhlys album? In relation to me, it does a lot. Well, the Americans have gained my increased attentiveness with each next release. Their first albums were somehow indifferent to me, but already the previous one, released four years back, ‘Melinoë’, strongly intrigued me, although at the same time it did not ultimately infect me with its poison. ‘House of the Black Geminus’ broke through the wall and broke into my mind with full force. On this album, the gentlemen finally crystallize their musical visions, combining modern black metal with ambient elements. Most of their compositions are truly stormy, furious and uncompromising. They are dominated by fast chords, completely dehumanized, automatically depriving the will to live, often inspired by the French school. The pace is set by medium tempo ruthless percussion blasts, very often turning into highly technical, non-obvious and surprising areas. The venom of this music, in turn, is thickened by heavily adrenaline-fuelled furious vocals, sounding at times like a possessed man trying to break out of his straitjacket. Quite often, a slight dissonance in the melody will sneak through, elsewhere, less frequently, we will collide head-on with a classic of the second wave school... And to deepen the mood, Akhlys immerse us, sucking in like a swamp, with fragments of infectious, aforementioned ambient, such as in ‘Black Geminus’, a sick trip through the dark sides of the mind, which is a perfect complement or counterbalance to the coldness emanating from their most offensive compositions. With these two components, the Americans have created such an unbelievably possessive and icy material, that at times, when listening to ‘House of the Black Geminus’, frost shrouds our teeth bared in a wide smile. To sum up, Akhlys have torn my soul to shreds for the first time, like cenobites. I am totally bought with this album and intend to return to it often. A very good release, no question about it.

- jesusatan

 

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