Entry 469 - Këkht Aräkh - Pale Swordsman

 

I kept seeing this album pop up on my feed for a few weeks... or months, I don't remember. Based on the cover my initial thoughts were "oh, this is just another 1 man black metal project made in a basement somewhere" and moved on. But I kept on seeing it and people kept praising it. Eventually I made my way to bandcamp to check it out...

Needless to say what I got was not at all what I was expecting. This is indeed a 1 man black metal project, but it is hardly a typical entry into that field. Immediately the album starts out with a piano piece, but its produced like something out of Norway from 1992. After its completion Thorns picks right up with the piano playing over a riff that again is right out of 1992 Norwegian black metal... complete with the production.

I can't overstate how cool the transition is from the Intro to Thorns. The piano sets the stage and then the first real song runs with it. This is not the formula for the album moving forward, but it does instantly grab my attention with its unique hook.

As the album continues a lot of the classical music elements are dropped for a while, there are moments in each song though that deviate from the blast beat norsecore that the music seems to be based off of. Both Amor and Nocturne are excellent instrumentals to end and begin their respective sides of the record.  In The Garden mixes up the pace quite a bit along with a riff that seems just a little bit off. Swordsman, the outro, features clean vocals and sounds like it was recorded on an old Edison cylinder.

This album is about as far from my expectations as it could possibly get. Yes this is raw old school black metal. Yes this is a one man project, but god damn if Crying Orc dosen't pull out all the stops for when it comes to creating interesting and engaging black metal. This is the type of release the genre needs.