it came back to me, back from a dream, an old forgotten memory. reminding me i still could be free, there was born my moment of clarity. the gray has been washed away, enduring the pain for the sun to rise again. feel the warmth of my touch, and hear my call, lingering trapped, deliver from all. i have seen a million faces, staring into the abyss of mankind. i have been a million places, yet home i couldn’t find. feel the weight of existence, but don’t bend your knees, a pathway ends where another begins. armed with minds finest weapon, new perspective, untie the ropes that once marked my skin. now i can reach much further.
Abigail Williams has had a weird career with hiatuses and lineup changes, but they have finally perfected their sound on Walk Beyond the Dark. This album has such a refreshing and natural feeling that makes it one of the top atmospheric black metal albums of recent years. Ryan
Gaerea's first release of "Unsettling Whispers" was in 2018, and since, they dared define a "black metal" niche of their own, they dared to walk a new path and stir shit up a bit in the realm of BM, this album is a masterpiece and a milestone proving that it can be done, provided the band can pull it off, and they did, oh they did! Gloomy, dark, post-BM sludgy whatever, it's Gaerea, and this one belongs in my BC collection, the end. sachavonkarl74
Tokyo band contrast black metal's brutal complexity with shoegaze's abyssal grandeur, resulting in an LP that feels crushing, yet infinite. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 24, 2022
Arkhtinn's demo work culminates in VI. Each of the two tracks manage to surpass almost any of their predecessors. VI's black metal track embodies the cold-sweat inducing knowing of an imminent disaster - say the panic while approaching a cosmic gate to a dimension filled with grim horrors. II is the official sonic equivalent to what is found on the other side. Hellish, and nothing but sublime. It cannot be a coincidence that the follow-up to this demo is named 'First Catastrophe'.
Arkh10/10. David Fischer