It's hard to believe that Arkaik is already at their sixth full-length release. I’ve always shared a personal connection with the band, since it was one of the bands along with Obscura and Beyond Creation that opened the gateway to technical and progressive death metal. Coming back from an hiatus of almost five years, “Labyrinth of Hungry Ghosts” is the band’s newest and most ambitious release. Backed by the proficiency of The Artisan Era, all I can expect is a brutal mashup of technicality and speed. Without any further ado, let's jump into the discussion!
The album opener “The Orphion Descent” showcases a grand entry with massive chugs with technical elements thrown into (reminding me of the starting of “Slaves Beyond Death”). The melodic solo exactly does what an Arkaik solo needs - changing the dynamics. This one is a bit slow-paced, keeping the groove to its core while building up for the madness yet to come. It is with “Labyrinth of Hungry Ghosts”, Arkaik wraps itself into the technical proficiency they are known for. Being much more nuanced with choppy rhythm, pinched harmonics and shred blasts - this one seems to be in close connection to “Supernal Flame” and will definitely appeal to the newer fans.
“Abode of the Deceiver” features catchy riffs and grooves intense with blasting drums beneath it (a blend between Inferi riffs and Soreption grooves). Also, how can I miss the melodic guest guitar solo by Miguel Esparza (Desdendium, ex-Arkaik). “Broken Glass Apotheum” showcases choppy rhythm in fashion of The Zenith Passage. The song, with its modern elements, leaves a hint of melody in the later half, giving it a memorable ending.
“Wayward Opulence” openly uses nasty dissonance based riff-structure while containing some interesting moments of drumming chops. “To Summon Amoria” is the only track to feature a clean guitar intro. The melodic guitar layering with sludgy riff certainly makes it different from other songs. Also, expect flute and violin solos on this one. Tracks like “Eminent Emergence” and “The Vertical Road” provide a lot of room for the atmosphere building with their progressive songwriting.
With “Labyrinth of Hungry Ghost”, the band certainly proves they have still not lost their quality song-writing, while bringing in few atmospheric and progressive elements from their previous releases like “Nementhia”. The bands in The Artisan Era have been in the forefronts of tech-death game, and Arkaik keeps up to the status with members like Mike Low (Inferi) on the production and Malcolm Pugh (Inferi, Demon King) on bass. The first half of the album builds up to the speed, while the second half focuses more on elements like dissonance and atmosphere, certainly taking a bigger run-time. The riifs of Alex Haddad certainly has moments of intense catchiness to absolute bone-crushingly heavy while the vocal work of the band’s frontman Jared Christianson is amazing. Certainly, its evident the album will appeal to all the fans of the band, of the genre in general and “Labyrinth of Hungry Ghosts” being an awesome release in Arkaik’s discography.
Review: 4.5/5.0
Website: https://www.facebook.com/ArkaikBand
Genre: Technical Death Metal
Worldwide Release: March 11th, 2022.
