WHAKAOHO 001
Këkht Aräkh - Pale Swordsman (2021)
I came across this album in February, right around the time my childhood home had to be evacuated in the Auckland floods. I was eager to distract myself from the intensity of experiencing a flood as well as the stress of putting up a solo theatre show with no money. At this time I started to get back into RYM and searching for new music to delve into. This was important at the time because I sort of felt like I'd spent 2021 and 2022 just finding songs, adding them to playlists, and building a collection of tracks to refer to on my walks or whatever. But I used to make it a pledge to listen to new music, and stuff I hadn't listened to before. I used to hold myself accountable to that. That's nuts.
Anyway this year I have been doing it again. Listing albums I am discovering or have been putting off listening to in full. But the real start of this journey was with this album, what RYM user: CatThatHat calls "Twink Black Metal"
I would consider this an accurate description, I haven't listened to a whole lot of Black Metal, I've only really been able to find tracks here and there that properly appeal to me. But I have always had an ear and eye out for the aesthetics, artwork, lo-fi production and recording. This album specifically has a real melancholy, slow, sad tone that makes it really endearing to listen to.
To me, the mix of dreamy piano and guitar interludes and thrashing, noisy blastbeat songs makes a lot of sense. The whole album feels really cohesive and is definitely gonna be a night walk staple of mine for at least the next few months.
The closing track "Swordsman" is a masterpiece. The way the vocals and piano float alongside each other across the song is beautiful and I had to have it on repeat for at least 10 mins.
Anyway, if you like sad, droning, noisy music I'm sure you'll find something to like here.
Ngā mihi
Reon x
"The moon floats across the black skies,
No stars to be seen out tonight"
Favourite songs:
"Thorns"
"In the Garden"
"Swordsman"
Listen:
https://kekhtarakh.bandcamp.com/album/pale-swordsman
https://soundcloud.com/kekhtarakh/sets/pale-swordsman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRQb04e09vs&ab_channel=BlackMetalPromotion