black metal / avant garde
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Beyond is the most recent release of Arkhaeon, a Swiss black metal project of which very little is known. With only one track – titled Beyond – being almost thirty four minutes long, this album is an interesting exemplar of a very functional mixture of raw, melodic, symphonic and esoteric black metal.
Exploring very well the essence of its melodic possibilities, Beyond is almost a symphony of melancholy, relying in an ocean of forgetfulness and desolation, searching for redemption in a place of sorrow, disdain and coercion. With calm guitar lines, and sometimes beautifully poetic acoustic passages, Arkhaeon is a very peaceful, quiet, self-reliant, reflexive and philosophic black metal record. Nonetheless, growling vocals, fast guitars and rapid sonorous passages are prevalent throughout the whole album, which makes Beyond to be quite a unique record, with a digressive, but somewhat objective style, that manages to conquer its own boundaries of artistic intuition, in a high level of lucid proficiency, that makes the album – in fact, the track itself – to portray a lot of different emotions, colors and nuances, drawing different pictures and setting different contexts into a track full of surprises, emotions, setbacks and atmospheres.
With a formidable layout that seems to be always changing to achieve a new level of sensibility, this track really explores the wider possibilities of an atmospheric sound, into a very black metal background. But evoking different perspectives and antagonistic choices, a rebellion seems to explode into the heart of the unknown. Always surprising the listener with unforgiving elements that integrates new components into the music, Arkhaeon does a fine work on this album, elaborated at the height of a perception that explores wisely all the different nuances and perceptions that are possible in the genre, never falling into ordinary clichés. Although I sincerely can’t categorize this work as a masterpiece – yet – Beyond is undoubtedly a serious and magnificent work, that rereads and reworks the genre in a more stoic, experimental, sophisticated and complex manner, while exonerates the fate of an ordinary approach with the transcendental ambition of its poetic values.
Beyond is a very intriguing album. Although it will hardly please enthusiasts of the more conservative wing of the genre – although Arkhaeon is neither progressive nor DSBM [although closely resembles] – this work deserves all the compliments for its audacity, creativity and originality. It certainly deserves to be among the most interesting avant-garde black metal albums of the decade!
Wagner
Exploring very well the essence of its melodic possibilities, Beyond is almost a symphony of melancholy, relying in an ocean of forgetfulness and desolation, searching for redemption in a place of sorrow, disdain and coercion. With calm guitar lines, and sometimes beautifully poetic acoustic passages, Arkhaeon is a very peaceful, quiet, self-reliant, reflexive and philosophic black metal record. Nonetheless, growling vocals, fast guitars and rapid sonorous passages are prevalent throughout the whole album, which makes Beyond to be quite a unique record, with a digressive, but somewhat objective style, that manages to conquer its own boundaries of artistic intuition, in a high level of lucid proficiency, that makes the album – in fact, the track itself – to portray a lot of different emotions, colors and nuances, drawing different pictures and setting different contexts into a track full of surprises, emotions, setbacks and atmospheres.
With a formidable layout that seems to be always changing to achieve a new level of sensibility, this track really explores the wider possibilities of an atmospheric sound, into a very black metal background. But evoking different perspectives and antagonistic choices, a rebellion seems to explode into the heart of the unknown. Always surprising the listener with unforgiving elements that integrates new components into the music, Arkhaeon does a fine work on this album, elaborated at the height of a perception that explores wisely all the different nuances and perceptions that are possible in the genre, never falling into ordinary clichés. Although I sincerely can’t categorize this work as a masterpiece – yet – Beyond is undoubtedly a serious and magnificent work, that rereads and reworks the genre in a more stoic, experimental, sophisticated and complex manner, while exonerates the fate of an ordinary approach with the transcendental ambition of its poetic values.
Beyond is a very intriguing album. Although it will hardly please enthusiasts of the more conservative wing of the genre – although Arkhaeon is neither progressive nor DSBM [although closely resembles] – this work deserves all the compliments for its audacity, creativity and originality. It certainly deserves to be among the most interesting avant-garde black metal albums of the decade!
Wagner
