Active since 2003, Australians Arkheth reach the finish line of their fourth album with “Clarity Came With A Cool Summer’s Breeze”, a work that highlights their expressive maturity and experimental traits.
Over time, the melodic and symphonic black metal of the beginnings has been enriched with lysergic progressive nuances that in the current scene make of Arkheth an unique entity.
“Clarity Came With A Cool Summer’s Breeze” is in perfect balance between the great prog-psych masterpieces of the past and the more experimental black metal, so much so that the two genres blend and merge in an admirable way.
The melodies that the Australians pull out of their hat smell of Beatles, English psychedelia and 1960s garage rock, reformulated and expanded in the light of the intellectual, esoteric, heavy and/or jazz rock of the 70's, with obvious references to the suites of King Crimson, Pink Floyd and Van Der Graaf Generator. But what about extreme metal? Present above all in the voices and in certain black metal accelerations, it is the mysterious and exotic ingredient, which adds material brushstrokes and rough gloom to an otherwise luminous canvas, made of acidic mind-expanding melodies, sophisticated electro-acoustic arrangements and flurries of sax, clarinet and luxuriant synths.
Have a good trip!