Some black metal bands just get it!!!  One such band, who were one of the best at this, but sadly no longer around, was Aosoth, from France.  When listening to Akhlys, one would not necessarily think this was an American band.  However, over the last number of years, the States have been experiencing a swell of quality black metal bands, from across the country.

Akhlys, get it, but at first, I did not…let me explain.  This Colorado act came onto the scene in 2009 with their debut album Supplication.  The entire 37-minute-long album is more of a dreamlike trance – there is no music.  It’s an entire 37 minutes of ambiance.  Now is this something I would listen to?  No.  Maybe the act did this as a way of testing the waters.  Test it they did with The Dreaming I in 2015, the true debut, if you will.  Shredding black metal with atmospherics, still, but this album took the scene by storm due to the evil brutality contained within.  The band followed it up in 2020 with the dark and disturbing Melinoë.  And these album covers went along perfectly with the viciousness.

Here we are in 2024 and House of the Black Geminus is upon us  I appreciate the band still actually reaching back to that ambient debut album, but to have the title track, at close to six minutes, smack dab in the middle of the album and it’s all the trancelike ambiance, for me, really disrupts the album flow.  Personally I would have left this off the album.  However, that is the only gaffe, on what makes up a monstrously well-played and evil album.

“The Mask of Night-Speaking” starts off the album and at close to 12 minutes long is the longest on the album.  Anytime a band begins with such a long song they’re taking a leap of faith that this start to the album will grab the listener’s attention.  The music starts early on with a terrific guitar tone as well as creepy keyboards which call to mind the classic horror movie Suspiria.  The instrumentation, alongside some massive double bass action, slowly and slowly builds to epic proportions.  The way this opening sequence is played I think would actually go over well in a live setting with the crowd anticipation.  Lower those headphones!!!!!!!!!!!  At the four-minute mark, the music erupts and I mean ERUPTS, into a monstrous blast beat with the vicious vocals coming forth.  The song gets back into the mid-paced part with those keyboards, this time with the vocals over this section.  Truly incredible and then into more vicious mid-paced goings-ons and the keyboards really make a prominent mark.  The blast beats are stop on a dime sort of blasting, terrific as the guitars and keys over the blasts create an ethereal evilness throughout.  More tempo shifts with some deeper layered vocals coming through and this seems to be the orchestration from the pits of hell.

“Maze of Phobetor” is up next and blasts right out of the starting gates.  The blasting and style reminds me of early Morbid Angel off their Altars of Madness album, for some reason.  The mid-paced tremendously heavy guitar riffing comes in and the atmosphere contained during this section is pure madness.  Now I get the drums are triggered, however, they do sound terrific and although powerful, never overtake the rest of the music or vocals.  This is a supremely amazingly mixed album.  The blasts that ignite again, with the guitars and keys never get lost in the shuffle.  There seem to be some distorted vocal effects and I do enjoy the varying vocals tones a lot!!!  The distorted vocal moments, when added to the insane brutal velocity, at times, can be a bit much.  It can be overload, at times coming across as unbridled, yet controlled chaos.  This band will test your senses in a variety of ways.

“Eye of the Daemon – Daemon I” ends the album with terrific keys and guitar riffing.  The drumming is monstrous.  The bass guitar is there, in the background, though.  That I will say, gets buried at times, in the mix.  This track gets things going very fast early on and close to the mid-way point the song slows for a brief moment.  The isolated guitar is excellent until the crushing mid-paced moments erupt and roll right over your pathetic bones.  The blast over the 4-minute section has terrific guitar melodies throughout.  The song is ferocious then, teeters to the end by incorporating those ambient moments, which work well, in the shorter confines of the song.

House of the Black Geminus punishes from the beginning to the mid-way point when the title track’s ambiance takes over, then after 6 minutes is back to the fury.  Maybe this 6 minutes is more of a breather for us all since this album is relentless.  Fun fact, some of you may not know 2/3 of Akhlys are also in Aoratos, out of Colorado. Their ferocious 2019 debut, Gods Without Name, is in need of a follow-up, soon!  If you enjoy your black metal well-played, ferocious and most of all memorable, you really need to check out Akhlys.  They are one of the best out there!

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