Artist: Ukhu Pacha
Title: Yanantin
Type: Album
Label: Digital / Obscurant Visons (for physical merch)
Incan black metal? Actually this is by far the first album of that ilk I have found over the years, but it popped up in my eyeline and I thought I’d give it a go with zero knowledge. The name comes from Andean cosmology from a brief dip into the internet; the realm below or the inner world which shapes reality.
‘Yachaywasi’ begins with a high jangling guitar sound, a thumping drum and then falls into a low driving riff raw and fuzzed. And then the most curious, the most heart grabbing meoldy reaches out. It is that ‘jangling’ sound that is immediate but just unlike much I have ever heard. When the vocals come in I realise I have lucked upon something here. They are buried in the mix, half muffled but with a sound that reminds me of Carl McCory on ‘The Nefilim’ album. The melody is strange, but works bueatifully, the guitar break perhaps a little out of kilter with the mix but this is so compelling. The mix of the variety of guuiat approaches from black metal riff to almost goth jangle is, frankly, beautiful. Of course I have not a clue what they are singing about but damn this is arresting stuff.
‘Urkhu’ brings another level of energy, a swiftness to the riff and that tremelo melody surging through. The vocals are really growing on me by this point; low in the mix maybe but they demand attention like a howling wind sweeping down from the mountains. This is just a fantastic song; rhythmic, rising, full of passion and almost… celebratory somehow. The tempo shifts are just spot on, down into a lower pace here, before bursting out there and always that guitar holding you fixed.
‘Macana’ has a heads down opening, an almost speedpunk edge before the melody and the vocals draw out an eerie and melancholy feel to it. Again that melody utterly grips me as though my mind doesn’t know what is going on but it loves it. It never stands still for a minute, dancing out a breathless pace. More than seven minutes and doesn’t seem to repeat a moment. It is black metal, without a doubt but it has this bright, burning sunfire in its heart. Despite the black and white photo cover all I can see here is a huge burst of colour from the gods.
‘El Simbolo Eterno’…? Oh this is getting ridiculous. Oh man. The opening guitar break is like something I last heard from the Uk’s brilliant melodeath band Countless Skies. It soars, it rises and the riff goes with it, the vocals become an invocation in my mind. Something is coming through and it is time to embrace it; good or bad it is inevitable and eternal and so we damn well dance. The frantic pace, the notes making your feet dance, the vocals reaching and calling in that harsh black metal way. Nearly nine minutes and I don’t want it to stop. If I was young and at a gig I wouldn’t be able to stop moving. Is that wrong with black metal? I don’t give a damn. This has given me something, some joy, a sense of something greater than myself and good, bad or indifferent to my existence the fact that it exists is a moment for celebration.
‘Victoria De Las Aguas’ (victory of the waters? Maybe…) closes. A restless, tempestuous song with just that touch of punk energy to it intially but there is a flow here, a settling into calmer waters though still with energy and melody and, of course it rises in a storm of black metal riffing and vocals. The last thing we hear as the voices of women singing, flawlessly merging with and ending this album.
Pardon my language and lack of nuance but this is just fucking brilliant. Blown away. Hit out of the park. This is black metal but not as you know it; brimming over with punk and folk energy, a deep feel for the ethnic roots of the sound and an undeniable celebration of them and the cosmos they exist in. The arrangements, the tempo changes and grasp of melody and the pull it has on emotion is incredible. Listen. You will NOT be able to sit still. Jaw dropping debut.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 