[Review] With ‘Melinoë’, Black Metal Project AKHLYS Makes Us Forget About the Classic Bands. ‣ CVLTARTES

If you like NIGHTBRINGER you know they have long since made the leap out of the underground and, in addition to a significantly higher live presence, have also visibly increased the frequency of releases. Accordingly, there is not much time left for band head Naas Alcameth to take care of his other projects. Fortunately, after 2009 it finally worked with a new AKHLYS album – ‘The Dreaming I’ is really tough.

‘Pnigalion’ invites you to sink in. Not in the actual “positive” sense, but in a hypnotic journey into the deep black world of AKHLYS. I’ve noticed that this band has been taking an identity of its own and it was ready to shine for itself in an absolutely remarkable way since the very first album.

‘Melinoë’ is strong and exactly what I’ve expected from one of the few bands from the genre I truly appreciate. ‘Pnigalion’ is no doubt my fav song of the album probably because has a lot to deliver structurally speaking. ‘Pnigalion’ is a term that originally stems from the Ancient Greek and can be translated as something like “throttler” or “strangler”, while also being the name of the nightmare demon of the Greeks.

AKHLYS makes us forget the classic bands for a moment, reinventing and making our own a sound loaded with sinister textures that immerse us in the unconscious of the artist. I consider it a tremendous album by its complexity, aggressiveness and it had its own shine in the darkness, giving the band great psychological power to continue conquering ground beyond nightmares.

From the very beginning, I was fascinated by the artwork which I found out later on that the layout of ‘Melinoë’ was handled by Kontamination Design.

Despite its aggressive character, AKHLYS‘ music is incredibly mesmerizing, and listening to three-quarters of an hour from ‘Melinoë’ is definitely not boring at all. ‘Succubare’ does not intend to break the atmosphere just allows you to catch your breath after a monstrous storm of guitars and blasts in the of other previous songs of the album.

Fear, restlessness, wildness, and hypnosis are perhaps the best words to describe a musical variation of this band. In my opinion, this is one of the most important Black Metal albums of 2020.

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