#kekht-arakh — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2026-04-03 · 12:02 UTC

Këkht Aräkh – Morning Star Review By Samguineous Maximus

Somehow, Këkht Aräkh is one of the most popular black metal artists in the game right now. Since the release of sophomore album Pale Swordsman in 2021, the solo project of one Crying Orc (Dimitry Marchenko) has garnered serious momentum outside of the typical metal fandom with its melody-forward, “romantic” black metal sound. That record showcased a solid and surprisingly listenable, DSBM-informed, almost folksy take on classic ’90s blackened tropes, but more importantly, it felt emotionally honest without being cheesy. With album art like that, heartfelt, sadboy lyrics about love and isolation, and a raw, tape-inspired sonic landscape, it was an impressive achievement that the earnest pathos of Pale Swordsman managed to eclipse the potential corpse-paint cringe. Five years later, with a memetic cover referencing an infamous, dorky Varg photo and a string of singles that seem equally indebted to modern cloud rap and black metal, one can’t help but wonder whether Morning Star has tipped the delicate balance between sincerity and self-parody. As a cloud rap enjoyer and black metal nerd, I might be the only staff member not to laugh this latest Këkht Aräkh out of the schoolyard. Is this long-anticipated follow-up actually worth the wait?

On Morning Star, Crying Orc hasn’t lost his ear for blackened melody that made earlier Këkht Aräkh material engaging; he’s just found new ways to package it. Tracks like opener “Wänderer” take the familiar black metal elements, but re-purpose them to mimic the patterns of hazy SoundCloud beats. The central bedroom guitar motif operates on a two-bar loop, with layers of distorted tremolos added and stripped back across verses and hooks like a hip-hop producer might use synths. A warm, syncopated bass supplies rhythmic variation as the drums blastbeat away. Crying Orc shifts between shrieks and whispers, both delivered in a clipped, almost percussive flow, peppered with ad-libs. This formula is surprisingly effective and allows the layers of haunting melodies to shine alongside more straightforward 2nd-wave riffing (“Castle,” “Land av evig natt II”) or with a greater emphasis on sung vocal lines (“Mörker över mörker,” “Gates”). Bladee himself even appears on “Eternal Martyr” to lend his signature autotuned anti-charisma to an earworm hook, resulting in a genuine blackened banger. The cloud rap influence pans out better than I could’ve expected and leads to several highlights across the tracklist.

Of course, this is only one side of the Këkht Aräkh coin, as many of the songs on Morning Star forgo black metal altogether in favor of indie-tinged folk ballads. “Genom sorgen,” “Drömsång” and “Trollsång” are composed of minimalistic clean guitars, subtle synth layers, and softly sung vocals. These tracks are serviceable and understandable in the context of a longer album, but they lack the sense of progression and movement that makes the black metal material enjoyable. Crying Orc’s singing has an amateur charm that conveys a sorrowful gravitas when deployed, and it’s often pleasant in short bursts, but many of the softer moments fail to capitalize on it for maximum effect—and they make up a significant portion of the album. Even outside of the dedicated slower tracks, songs like “Lament,” “Raven King” and “Vigil” bookend their runtimes with extended minimalism that does little to further the greater piece. The title track “Morning Star” is an exception to this rule: led by a mournful string melody, it expands and contrasts brilliantly, whereas the others remain static.

One area where Këkht Aräkh should have diverged from his rap peers is in Morning Star’s bloated tracklist of 17 songs. With each track firmly in the 2-3 minute range, many feel like half-finished ideas that end abruptly before anything interesting happens. As a result, the more engaging black metal tracks lose some of their power when they’re buried next to underwhelming ballads. This ends up emphasizing an ephemeral “vibe” as the record’s strongest trait rather than any individual track. A combination of the lo-fi, tape-inspired soundscape and the persistent melancholic melodies makes Morning Star a very easy album to throw on and just bathe in its atmosphere. The whole thing exudes a pervasive sense of emotional honesty that’s enticing. It’s a record that sounds amazing on a car ride or in the background, when conjuring a certain mood, but falls a bit short upon closer inspection.

Morning Star is a difficult record to evaluate. There’s a lot here to like, from the shockingly adept integration of cloud rap elements to the enticing layered melodies and lo-fi production, but these strengths are ultimately undercut by an overstuffed tracklist and songs that fail to develop. In a certain light, this could be a strength for listeners who prioritize musical “vibes” over substance, but to this metalhead, it comes across as underbaked.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: N/A | Format Reviewed: Stream
Label: Sacred Bones
Websites: kekhtarakh.bandcamp.com | Instagram.com/kekht_arakh
Releases Worldwide: March 27th, 2026

#25 #2026 #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BlackMetal #Bladee #FolkMetal #KëkhtAräkh #Mar26 #MorningStar #RawBlackMetal #Review #Reviews #SacredBonesRecords #UkrainianMetal

#atmosphericblackmetal #blackmetal #bladee #folkmetal #kekhtarakh #mar26

Your Future Ex @[email protected] · 2026-02-23 · 16:00 UTC

For @HailsandAles' #BlackMetalMonday:

#Unmother: State Dependent Memory

https://album.link/b/2197526690

#PostBlackMetal

FFO #Dödsrit #KëkhtAräkh #Orodrim

#orodrim #kekhtarakh #dodsrit #postblackmetal #unmother #blackmetalmonday

Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2025-11-13 · 17:03 UTC

Lamp of Murmuur – The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy Review

By Tyme

L.A.-based M., the mastermind behind Lamp of Murmuur, has been busy this year. In addition to releasing two other solo projects—Silent Thunder’s EP, Soulspear, and Magus Lord’s full-length, In the Company of Champions—he’s readying to unleash his fourth Lamp of Murmuur long player, The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy, this November. Far removed from the very lo-fi, kvltish cassette-only demos of 2019, Lamp of Murmuur has steadily matured over the years. Our resident shark, Carcharodon, had ‘tons of fucking fun’ with 2023’s Saturnian Bloodstorm, highlighting its heavy Immortal influence. When I spied The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy sitting unclaimed in the sump, I reached out to our scrivening squalus, who graciously ceded his seniority, hoping I had as much fun with LoM’s newest outing as he had with its last. Will The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy build off the excitement of Saturnian Bloodstorm, and further M.’s musical momentum, or will we discover that Lamp of Murmuur’s shine has dimmed a bit?

At first blush, The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy extends Saturnian Bloodstorm’s thrashing black metal template before wading into waters teeming with new wave and gothic metal elements. Immortal’s influence still lurks amidst M.’s swirling, rapid-fire tremolos and galloping chugs (“Hategate (the Dream-Master’s Realm)”), while twinkling, Këkht Aräkh-like keys lace the guitar-driven melodies on “Forest of Hallucinations,” its intro emitting South of Heaven-era Slayer vibes from the harmonized leads. M.’s vocals, as blackly metallic and viscerally lethal as ever, are dichotomously connected to the music and venture into minimally explored cleaner climes while sharing the spotlight on “A Brute Angel’s Sorrow” with guest vocalist Crying Orc (Këkht Aräkh).1 For beyond the Nightmare on Elm Street meets Black Aria2 vibes of instrumental opener “The Fires of Seduction,” lie the equally moody atmospheres of mid-album interlude “Angelic Vortex,” which serves as a portal, ushering listeners from Lamp of Murmuur’s past into what The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy represents for the project’s future.

Three-part title track, “The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy,” is the album highlight. Without jettisoning its black metal roots, Lamp of Murmuur shrouds this triptych in a Sólstafiric, proggy haze of spacy, 70s-style rock guitar solos and cascading Phantom of the Operatic progressions (“Part I – Moondance”), melodic, soaring leads (“Part II – Twilight Orgasm”) and a romping, symphonic paganism (“Part III – The Fall”) reminiscent of early Old Man’s Child. In addition, M.’s broadening, clean vocals inject new-wave intensity into the non-harsh moments of “Moondance,” a Moroder & Bowie “Cat People (Putting Out the Fire)” feel into the latter croons of “Twilight Orgasm,” and an effective, Cattle Decapitation-esque tonal rasp into “The Fall.” I think I had as much fun diving in and out of the waters of this stretch of TDPiE as our beloved sharkster had ingesting the whole of Saturnian Bloodstorm.

As often as dichotomy spearheads musical diversity, however, it can also foster unintended inconsistency, and in the court of The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy’s case, the latter unfortunately testifies loudest. As many moments of greatness exist on both halves of TDPiE’s whole, so too do some missteps. M.’s first instance of cleans, for example, at the end of “Hategate (The Dream-Master’s Realm)” sound out of tune and pulled me from an otherwise enjoyable listen during every spin. In addition, “Part I – Moondance” contains some awkwardly off-key musical transitions, and at times, the staccato, machine-gun riffage in “Part III – The Fall” feels out of sync with the drumming. And as much as I enjoyed the acoustically well-executed and clean-sung “A Brute Angel’s Sorrow,” its off-putting, last-batter-in-the-lineup positioning completely saps the majesty from the silence left in the wake of “Part III – The Fall”‘s last powerful chord.

A tenet often adhered to despite its obtusity is that broadened popularity for a band that launched its career from the darkened shadows of the kvlt black metal world usually leads to its death or disownment. In the case of Lamp of Murmuur, a forerunner of the current USBM scene, opinions may vary. As it stands, The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy is a full-length that, if released as a pair of EPs, might have transcended its holistic inconsistencies. I’ve grown past the distaste I felt on initial listens to appreciate both sides of what Lamp of Murmuur has done here and look forward to M.’s continued growth, as should you.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: Wolves of Hades
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: November 14th, 2025

#2025 #30 #blackMetal #gothicMetal #immortal #kekhtArakh #lampOfMurmuur #nov25 #oldMansChild #review #solstafir #theDreamingPrinceInEcstasy #usbm #wolvesOfHadesRecords