ARKHAAIK – UIHTIS

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jul 282025
 

(Andy Synn rejoins the hunt with the new album from Arkhaaik)

One of the things we sometimes discuss amongst ourselves, here in the dark, dank depths of NCS Castle, is what the primary, prevailing “trend” of each year is.

And one thing I’ve noticed over the last seven-ish months is that – rather than being a straight up “Black Metal year” or a “Death Metal year” (or even a “Hardcore year”) – 2025 looks set to be a year defined more by the more unorthodox and unusual expressions from across the genre spectrum.

In some ways this, of course, makes it hard to identify a singular commonality which defines “the year in Metal” (so far, anyway)… but, from a different perspective, you might just say that this flexing and blurring of fluid genre boundaries is exactly what ties so many of the biggest and best albums of 2025.

And now we have this uniquely esoteric and ritualistically hypnotic hybrid of “blackened” Doom and deathly gloom courtesy of Switzerland’s Arkhaaik.

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SHADES OF BLACK: LUCTUS, NATÜRGEIST, MANIA, ARKHAAIK, TRYPANON, DOWNWARD

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Jul 132025
 

(written by Islander)

Although this Sunday’s collection includes varying shades and phases of black metal I would say they have unsettling sensations of madness and murder in common, and most of them feature a muscular heart-hammering punch as well as abundant doses of crazed ferocity and mind-bending psychosis.

In many instances you’ll also encounter some of the most unhinged vocals you’re likely to find outside the hideous real-world history of self-immolation.

Only in extreme metal could an introduction like that qualify as “enticing,” but I know our audience well enough that I’m sure it will be. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ARKHAAIK — “*dʰg̑ʰm̥tós”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Jul 022019
 

 

We are told that *dʰg̑ʰm̥tós, the title of the new album by the Swiss band Arkhaaik, is a representation of an ancient Indo-European language that dates to the Bronze Age, and that the same language is used in the song titles and the lyrics. The music itself seems equally to be an attempt to penetrate the barriers of time, to unearth and reimagine primitive rites that might link our modern selves with more primal incarnations of humanity — and with inhuman spirits.

The music’s ritualistic aspects are never far away, especially in the album’s title track, in which the reverberating rhythms sound like the beat of a hide drum, and the tones of other ancient percussive instruments and deep, droning horns join together — along with an array possessed voices — to create a mystical (and frightening) feeling of supplication, ecstasy, and enlightenment.

But while the sense of participating in ancient rites runs through the entire album, the other two tracks portray the rituals through a powerful (and often terrifying) hybrid of “sepulchral death metal, blackened bestiality, and lava-like doom” — to quote the spot-on words of the publicist for Iron Bonehead Productions, who will release the album this coming Friday, July 5th. Today we present a full stream of the album in advance of that release. Continue reading »