Artach is a two men band from Canada and after 9 month of playing together they released their debut “Chronicles of a Black Winter“. When you are looking for a homage to the 90s Black Metal wave, here it is.
Even the sound is a modern version of the sound from almost 30 years ago. The whole album is very riff focused. This creates a nice and cold atmosphere. The only problem is that especially if you have experienced the 90s there is not a single riff you haven‘t heard yet. Nevertheless “Chronicles of a Black Winter“ is a beautiful best of album. You can hear riffs from Darkthrone, Satyricon, Samael, Immortal, and Enslaved, just to name a few. A big plus are the vocals as the vocalist Flochmhar sounds like he is gurgling his own guts with a slightly punky note, like Darkthrone‘s later stuff, but a little bit different.
I think Artach are on the right way, they just need to find their own style of presentation. It‘s nice to hear that there are still bands nowadays who pay such a tribute to the good old Black Metal days. (HaCeBo)
