Label:Svart Records
There are times when a band within the doom metal subgenre takes it so far it is quite difficult for even the initiated ones to the genre to tolerate what they are trying to achieve. This merely speaks to the lack of patience that all extreme metal fans occasionally have, but in this case, you should really rise above yourself and keep your gaze focused on Dark Buddha Rising’s latest gift, Dakhmandal.
If what you are looking for in music is just mere moments then this album is not for you, Dakhmandal is a holistic experience. Its eighty minutes can be compared to a very unpleasant (in a good way always) acid trip. The band from Finland has now reached its fifth full length and even though their style has not changed drastically, their ideas have matured. Their doom/sludge with a fair share of drone influences and the necessary inclusion of psychedelic influences leads the way to their dark inhuman creation.
The transition into Dakhmandal begins quite smoothly with the twelve-minute (regardless to say the average duration of the individual songs is about fourteen minutes) intro “D”, slowly hypnotizing you. And it works! After that you are hooked to their sound. The repetitive rhythms, the sound effects and the insane feedback hit the right spot of the brain. Of course their intentions are not as innocent and peaceful as they appear in “D”, and they soon enough let all their weight brought down in the follow up “K”. The sludge riffs work perfectly with the chants coming out of the darkness, before the track goes completely mental and then retreats to its original state, with the repetitive patterns along with the hits from the bong (literally and figuratively in this case) transporting you into an unearthly trance. The use of effects, the experimentation with the sonic capabilities of instruments and the cutthroat vocals make the ambiance absolutely intoxicating.
The tracks continue following the same path throughout the album. In some cases, Dark Buddha Rising crafts a menacing atmosphere, as is the case about five minutes in “H” (relying also on the keys), making their music resemble the soundtrack to an alien ritual where humans are being offered as sacrifices to unknown gods, or in the beginning of “M” which is surprisingly one of the least dark moments of the album, still quite dark but not as much as the rest of the album. At other instances their thirst for destruction is so expressive you cannot withstand its devastating blows, for instance in the sludge beginning of “H” and the utter eruption that comes with “N”, probably the heaviest moment of the album taking you further into the abyss with its filled with despair vocals. The other strong point of Dark Buddha Rising’s music is their jamming on top of the rhythms. The repetitive patterns help a fair deal on this part of their music, and they choose to go a bit more free style at occasion, the most brilliant of which is the closing track of the album “L”, which paints the warped portrait of the band perfectly with the inclusion of hellish chants and disturbing voices.
The skies have cleared, the stars have been revealed and the black sun has arisen in the horizon. Dark Buddha Rising unleash their finest moment and the listeners simply dissolve into its dark light…
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