Arkveid is the name of this Russian band, of which the few news that we have tell of a story that began in the middle of the same decade as a duo, but finally came true in the form of a debut album with the configuration of one man band. Apart from this, the only thing that remains is the music, and this is no small thing, because we are in the presence of decidedly valid in its exhibiting a dark mood distributed among the different genres that come together in the sound, starting from doom metal, to black passing through folk. This description could bring us, in terms of clues, close to a name like Agalloch, mentioned in the notes of presentation but with which, in fact, there are in common only the ingredients that go to join in recipes certainly different. Inevitably, the interpretation of the material by Russian musicians can never be similar to that of a North American band, because the musical background and compositional sensibility are too different, on the one hand more inclined to provide the sound with a patina of epic solemnity, on the other hand more bent towards an intimist folk offset by a fundamentally black matrix. Having said that, Arkveid is a good album, structured on one long track of almost forty minutes, but varied enough not to bore the listener; after all, a work of this type is required to flow pleasantly, with excellent melodic intuitions and maintaining a constant balance between all the components that are part of it.

2018 – Another Side Records