II

Arkhtinn are part of an obscure atmospheric black metal collective called the Prava Kollektiv. Not much is known about the projects' members, but Arkhtinn became the flagship band by virtue of being the oldest and most prolific. They released a series of demos starting in 2013 with a lengthy atmo-black metal song as the first track and an equally lengthy space ambient piece as the second.

We're taking a look and the second demo today. At this point, Arkhtinn's status as a demo band is quite obvious: they're trying stuff out without a whole lot of natural cohesion. There are some good ideas here though. The black metal track opens with a really cool mournful riff that hearkens back to very early Midnight Odyssey. From there, the tone gets spookier as the riff passages get joined by the eerie keyboard track and wailing vocals. The ideas are in the right place, but the drastic tempo shifts between riffs make this a little hard to follow. It doesn't make it unlistenable, but it does make it a little incoherent and unfocused. Going from a calm paced section to blast beating drums rarely works without some sort of transitional pause and overall I can tell if they're trying to sound airy and majestic or dark and ghostly.

The ambient half is your standard affair of blaring keys making this astral plains feel. It wraps up the release well enough, though overall Arkhtinn are still clearly trying to develop their identity and sound. Not much about this demo makes it all too unique to other atmospheric black metal around at this point in time, but it's one of several stepping stones for this band, and they will get better from here.