The Great Silk Road

I think Darkestrah is the perfect example of how hype can destroy a band. The only band from Kyrgyzstan that anyone has heard about, Darkestrah came onto the scene back in '04 with a pair of really solid albums, but then received a bunch of attention and crapped the bed with 'Epos' and followed similarly with 'The Great Silk Road'. What began as a band with pretty nuanced, interesting musical ideas where the folk influence was woven in neatly is now a band playing very generic Slavic symph black that wouldn't gain half the attention it normally would were it from the Ukraine like everyone else. What a fucking disappointment.

It's just so dull and stock in every element! Goblinish vocals over a bed of repetitive arpeggios or bland tremolo riffs, both taken from the early Lucifugum catalog, and folk influences that are completely hammered in with little care for how they come across to the listener. Moreover, it's absurdly slow: earlier Darkestrah varied tempos and rhythms a good deal, now the long tracks just plod around with the same couple melodic ideas and rhythms for inordinately long stretches. There's no creativity evidenced: even the folk influences (which sound like Ukrainian folk with a hint of Asian melody) are bland and sound like everything else out here. The pacing is fucking atrocious too, with single riffs dragging around like a murderer with a heavy corpse for minutes at a time, and they're usually not interesting enough to be worth their first repetition anyway.

Darkestrah plays it completely safe, adhering strictly to Ukrainian black metal convention, and they suffer for it. The oppressive symphonic elements drown out the guitars whenever they pop up (not that some stripped Dub Buk riffs minus the fire have much to offer), and in general the band seems to be trying to hide the fact that this album has no real ideas on it. The arduously long songs just draw this into sharper focus, as every song, no matter how long, has about the same number of ideas on it: a few generic Slavic riffs, some acoustic folk breaks, more generic Slavic riffs until they've reached the time they think is necessary for a song to become 'epic'. It fucking sucks.

I doubt Darkestrah are going to be able to turn around at this point, so I'd say just abandon this shit and pick up one of the band's first couple releases if you want to be satisfied. 'The Great Silk Road' is an absolute, uncreative disappointment that shouldn't be listened to by anyone who actually likes the style the band's trying to emulate. This just blows.

The unforgiving sun dominates the sky nearly all day as you make your way along this great and vast trade route from ancient times. The convoy plods along at an achingly slow pace...the camels mutter, wagons creak, cargo constantly clinks and clanks together from the jerky ride. Your face grows increasingly raw from the sun and the stinging sands of the desert which looms in all directions. Great riches await if you can brave the elements, creatures, bandits, and insurmountable distances that stand in your path!

I have a soft spot for black metal with exotic folk influences. This band plays a refreshing, melodic rendition of the black metal sound by incorporating said influences and not cocking it all up in pretension, stupidity, or laziness. They also work in some nice cinematic touches via samples, a couple of cool intros, and the odd interlude. It works, basically. Darkestrah doesn't fit squarely within any subgenres of black metal. This is primarily due to one reason.

1. To qualify for a "sub-subgenre" label, regardless of metal style, one must SUCK and rip off another greater and older band or bands.

The folk mingling isn't with the kind of bouncy, happy, Polka sounding shit that a lot of "metal" bands try to vomit forth. These elements are sparse and it really boils down to a folky feel more than anything else. Some of the rhythms and melodies recall this, as does the aforementioned mood setting elements. There are a couple acoustic passages and even some of the trademark Darkestrah throat singing during an intro.

The midrange, raspy vocals are great, as is usually the case in this band's fairly strong discography. The BEST harsh female vox I've ever heard are featured on this album. She rasps like a god damn banshee and I'm scared to get turned on by it. In fact, this is one of my favorite vocal performances regardless of gender. The guitars are in standard tuning and have a pretty fuzzy sound. They are distant and midranged enough to have a black metal aesthetic. The chords and tremolo picking are hardly new, but the progression and phrasing are unique enough.

The percussion is lively and entertaining if a bit simplistic. The kit is always going and the patterns shift often enough to keep your interest. There isn't any crazy blasting here. The drummer knows when to be more in the background as a supporting role without being boring. In addition, he steps it up well for the more intense passages with lots of pummeling snare/kick/ride, cymbal accents, and occasional toms. The fills and flourishes always seem to be there right when the percussion might otherwise become repetitive. I love the plentiful cymbal accents during many of the songs. The title track even has a very primal tom pattern during the beginning. I wish he did more of that!

I'm incredibly tired of being subjected to substandard drumming and drum sounds. If I hear one more triggered snare I'm going to flip the fuck out. Thankfully, Darkestrah's sound on here is very natural yet punchy. The toms will knock pictures off the walls and the bass drums will move your furniture around. That would suck if you weren't distracted by your face getting peeled off from the storm of distortion and hateful vocals. I guess the cymbals could be a tad louder, my ears aren't ringing. The backing keys give the otherwise menacing music a subtle majestic grace. It's an odd mesh but they pull it off. Not quite symphonic, which would only distract from the melodic assault I described. The synth strings make the songs even more memorable and add another dimension to the sound when used. Real fiddles even make an appearance.

Kyrgyzstan is their home country according to this site and I had no fucking clue where that was at first. I figured, by the sound of things, the members have some kind of Mongolian lineage or something. It turns out that Kyrgyzstan is part of Central Asia but the people are of mostly Turkish descent. This is where the exotic, folky vibe comes from and it kicks ass. The Great Silk Road is by far the best album they've done. Other releases had their moments but this surpasses them. It's like Darkestrah and Walknut have picked up where Drudkh left off with Blood in Our Wells. Fans of any of the aforementioned bands are guaranteed to be pleased with this. One of 2008's best.