Arkhum

Let’s just talk about Arkhum without acknowledging that life got in the way of me writing anything on here for a month or two…  *whistles* Moving right along…

Arkhum is a death metal band from Oregon.  And I think they are awesome, just to give away the direction of this post right off the bat.   I started following the guitarist on Twitter awhile back, and dug the tunes then, but seeing as how they are releasing an album August 20th, titled Anno Universum, now seems a great time to profile them on here and give you guys a chance to listen to them if you haven’t already before they become all huge, for metal elitist hipster cred. That’s what I’m here for.

They have a sci-fi theme to the music, much like Vektor, which I wrote about earlier on in the project.   Personally, I love when bands choose this theme, because to be honest I’ve about had my fill of dragons for a while, and because sci-fi generally appeals to math nerds like me.

Since for now, my expertise really lies in the doom/sludge genres, I don’t know who I can compare them to for reference.  While I listen to some death metal, I’m not as well versed in different styles, etc within the genre.    The first song on their Myspace, Obviated Geocentrism, has a bit of everything that death metal brings to the table.  The drumming sounds complicated, and well-done;  I thought the drumming was a bit low in the mix in some parts, but it’s titled as a ‘rough mix’ so it may sound different on album.  Either way it wasn’t a big issue for me, and in most parts it sounds great.     It took me a few minutes to get into the vocals as they are rough and gutteral, because at heart I’m really a delicate flower (insert laughing smiley here) but once I did, it fits.  Really well.  The vocals remind me of Cannibal Corpse, but listen and correct me if you think that’s not a valid comparison.  That’s where, for me, the similarity ends however.   The second song I listened to Obsolescent Husk, has some amazing guitar work in it.  This song is probably my favourite of the Myspace songs.  I’ll be buying the album when it comes out. I’d love to hear how they’ve mastered it.

So, to summarize, even though they seem like really nice dudes, which would make it difficult for me to be critical if I had to be,  I’d love this band anyway.  They’ve got really great energy and the songs  have a lot of re-playability for me.   I’m really excited to see how their album takes off, because they really do have a lot of energy judging from their myspace offerings.  I hope I’ll have a chance to see them live in the next year or so.   If you don’t like rough vocals, you probably won’t be into it, but then again, if you don’t like rough vocals, stop being a wuss, damnit.  ADDED BONUS: I can almost read their logo without squinting.

I apologize if the flow of this seems awkward, I literally haven’t written a thing that wasn’t fiscal and boring in 2 months, so I suppose it’s an upside I didn’t do this article solely consisting of calculations instead of words.

Arkhum = [(Guitar + Drums + Bass + Voice)* (talent + sci-fi nerdery)] * awesome

Damn, if I’d gone that route I’d have been done in ten seconds. Anyway, check ‘em out!

ARKHUM on Myspace

Arkhum on the Twitters

Arkhum Store