Where the Light Will Thread

Zhakiah comes from a Hebrew word meaning “pure and bright” is comprised of creative mastermind Stefanovic Jani on vocals, guitars, bass, and Alfred Fridhagen on drums. The opening riff of “Spirit’s Perfection” builds a desperate minor melody with a noble complexity, pulling in beautiful secondary dominant chords in a particularly lush yet brutal way. The track’s energy builds on this stellar guitar work and drums until an unexpected modulation up a half step shortly before a fade-out. As soon as I heard it I was hooked.

From the first ten seconds, I knew I was experiencing Gothenburg melodic death metal of the highest grade — emphasis on death metal. These days even some of the greats of the Gothenburg genre are now playing what sounds more melodic rock with growled vocals. Zhakiah doesn’t fall into this error: yes, it’s melodic and technical, but the album is full of pummeling down-tuned riffs and brutal drumming. At no point do we feel we’re listening to anything other than death metal. Fridhagen’s drumming provides a wonderful backbone to this brutality. (My favorite track in this regard is “Black Void of Old” with its blistering double kick and blast beats.)

Another thing that struck me as I listened was how well the album was produced. The sound was amazing. Guitars, drums, vocals, and even bass come through in a perfect mix that doesn’t sound too sterile and retains energy. As I don’t have any technical expertise in this area, I don’t know what makes this mix sound so good — I just know it does.

I’m very picky about vocals, both clean and growled, so I was relieved when I heard the quality of Jani’s voice. A lot of metal that sounds otherwise great has been ruined for me by vocalists that don’t understand the need for variance in their vocal style — even if they are growling. Jani’s growled vocals have a wide range and sound energetic and brutal throughout. (For a great example, check after the halfway mark in the second track, “Dominium Aeternum.”) The clean vocals are also great, which can’t be taken for granted in the more extreme genres.

Jani’s guitar work is stellar, with chugging riffs and amazing solos, but what I’m most impressed with is his songwriting ability — his capacity to combine all those into a coherent song. Jani’s riffing here is a tad darker and more desperate than your standard Gothenburg sound. The harmonic language rests in minor keys, but not in a boring way: there are many creative melodic elements over the course of the album. The brief atmospheric intro “Gethsemane” introduces a haunting use of the double harmonic minor scale, a mode with its roots in the Eastern and Byzantine traditions, which returns in the second half of “Ancient of Days.” We get a glimpse of a progressive technical passage in “Dominium Aeternum,” with its soft interlude about two-thirds through that crescendos into a bright guitar solo over a very non-diatonic chord progression.

The album includes a softer instrumental track with strings and clean guitar, “This Side of Eden.” As someone who is coming back to metal from a background in studying more classical music, I’m usually critical of these moments in metal, as writers who may be able to write metal riffs quite well sometimes compose something that comes off as juvenile when attempting something softer and instrumental. That’s not the case here. This brief interlude explores the key of E flat minor and its with secondary dominants and borrowed chords in a brief palate cleanser that refreshes the listener before we’re pummeled (in a good way) with the next track.

In summary, Zhakiah‘s Where the Light Will Thread is something I always felt was lacking in Christian metal: some really great Gothenburg melodic death metal that can absolutely compete with the greats of the genre. My only complaint about the album? I wish it were longer!