Autarkh - Emergent - Metal Epidemic

Autarkh – Emergent
Release Date: 10th November 2023
Label: Season of Mist
Bandcamp
Genre: Contemporary Extreme Metal
FFO: Dodecahedron, Strapping Young Lad, Igorrr, Textures.
Review By: Mark Young

Right. Full honesty here. No idea what contemporary metal is. But I am about to find out as Autarkh drop their sophomore album for you this week on what is one of the best days of the year (wedding anniversary! 16 years and counting!). Anyway, here we go.

And obviously, it is not as I expected. Open Focus is a maelstrom of noise, guitar lines, anguished screams with synths in there that come together to build into a cohesive form. It’s not as immediate as I thought it would be, but it is a strong marker for what the overall sound of the album. Strife is bang on. There are definite hints of The Ocean, of Gojira in there. It’s a heavy sound that does it without detuning. It’s more like the overall atmosphere is dense, they are not relying on constant guitars or double bass to carry the song along.

Duhkha changes that approach once more, amping up that vocal attack with a more riff-laden structure whilst subtle guitar plays in support. It’s more atmospheric, like you would hear this in a science-fiction flick, and just shows that on the three tracks alone they do not stand still or employ the same measures. Trek is a full-on beat nightmare, but doesn’t remain in that state. The music here is a massive laboratory experiment where nothing stays in the same state it started off in. Trek is a great example of this, going from the crazed start to an almost mellow sequence that bears no resemblance to what came before it. Wonderful stuff just sounds great. Refocus takes the approach from Trek and keeps that going but maintaining a harder edge to it. Aperture is a focus break to catch a breath before Eye of Horus zips in with what could be described a jolly swing to it. It’s still mental in delivery, and suddenly we are at the end, with the last two songs – Countless Kaleidoscopes and Ka. The former dances between differing attacks, all with a constant motion that has been in place all the way through, and it’s like the aural equivalent of spinning around as these ideas come and go. It’s something else. Final track, Ka, has a solid start in terms of its build, and it’s a relief after the two that came before it. It could be the most straight-forward song here and is still a cracker. That solid groove eases off with a choir like moment that brings it to a fantastic end.

So, what I would say is that this is just a colossal album.