Akhlys - House of the Black Geminus (ALBUM REVIEW)
Release date: July 5th, 2024 (Premiered digitally June 25th, 2024 - via Debemur Morti Productions)
I will be honest, this is perhaps the 2024 release that I have anticipated for the most out of all the “big names” with new albums to reveal this year.
My experience with Akhlys is a rather brief one - I first heard about them then listened to the sophomore predecessor to this one, “Melinoë”, in 2022 - but needless to say, the Colorado-based ambient-turned-black-metal brainchild of Naas Alcameth quickly got a grasp onto my mind with its absolutely demented soundscape and sickeningly intricate musicianship.
The intention to deliver a nightmarish atmosphere through and through has always been the modus operandi of Akhlys; and that is why, for quite a demographic of their audience, the 2020 release was considerably tame - even for me, who started my descent into oneiric madness with it. Yes, “Melinoë” was indeed a magnificent album, but when examined under the aforementioned MO, it was a little too safe and too traditional in its energy. In the same breath of said listeners, it is also common consensus that the black metal debut in 2015, “The Dreaming I”, is - for now - the strongest in baroscopic regards: we all know dearly how absolutely paralyzing and suffocating the album’s colossal centerpiece “Consummation” feels.
Almost ten years have passed since the spine-scraping primo moven was brought forth into life, and now our black metal sleep paralysis demons are back with the latest full offering “House of the Black Geminus”. The question is: how does it fare against the previous two albums, especially the much-acclaimed “Dreaming I”?
Let’s find out.
Still produced, mixed, and mastered by the extreme metal maestro Dave Otero himself, this album possesses arguably the most sophisticated aural design out of the three albums: while the prominent compositional triumvirate of vocals, drums, and guitars indeed remain in front and center, they are now enmeshed by layers upon layers of synths and white noise - especially the guitars.
The last time I heard about this method of tone blending was with Mick Gordon’s work in the game DOOM (putting the chainsaw in chainsaw tone), yet how the leading instruments in this particular album sounds is where I am thoroughly impressed. Naas Alcameth’s guitar tone has always been among the more unique-sounding, given how nauseating swirling it is; but how it is shaped and treated in “House of the Black Geminus” gives it a higher level of tonal complexity and adds to the cacophonic soundtrack of ephialtes.
The utilization of rancorous sonic discord does not end at simply being complementary to the overall instrumentation: at times it manifests itself as an entire entity of its own. Inside the 53-minute runtime, the interlude “Black Geminus” is entirely built with white noise, jarring ambience, and what appears to be occasional, bellowing Damage stings; and cultivates in a disturbing prelude that evokes deep anathema before leading to the penultimate “Sister Silence, Brother Sleep”.
Not only being a callback to the primeval days of Akhlys when it was still a dark ambient project, it also goes to showcase how this rather niche subgenre can be incorporated seamlessly into black metal.
In its fifteen-year existence, it is safe to say that Akhlys has found the equilibrium between the rampaging malice of black metal and the disquieting ambience that is malaise manifest. That said, “House of the Black Geminus” is not necessarily an onslaught of hideous, suffocating dread in the vein of “The Dreaming I”, but rather a reasonable evolutionary step for the band’s sound: perhaps it will not drive one to immediate insanity, but it does not need to anyway.
The nocturnal demons come after omens, lulling and tempting unassuming ears into catatonia, before showing themselves before us, only to drag us into the abyssal terror then inflict its oneiric psychosis into our mortal minds.
Lend a listen to the shrieking bogeymen.