I

While I was searching for information on the internet for Arkhtinn, I hit a wall. In their recent album titled with the simple name “I”, there is absolutely no information, neither about the members, nor about the country of origin, nor even the titles of the tracks. The only information that their label uncovers is that they come from the “north”. All this secrecy makes the listener want to listen to “I”, more because of curiosity than high expectations. The first side of the cassette contains one Black Metal track of twenty two minutes of duration, while the second side contains one ambient track of nineteen minutes of duration.

The Black Metal side of Arkhtinn, is harsh, primitive and dirty, not so much in a matter of style, but in a matter of sound. The production is so dirty, bassy, fuzzy and harsh that it distorts the sound and the result that it puts out is a thick noise which doesn’t let the listener distinguish the instruments. Musically, Arkhtinn play a mid – slow paced, dark Metal, with many drone elements, in several parts we find atmospheric references, but all these under the veil of the ambient character which generally dominates in the album. Their ambient side is atmospheric, with dark sounds that their only purpose is to provoke feelings of fear and agony. Unfortunately I can’t comment on the performance of the instruments and the vocals as they sound as noise. By that you can understand that even if there was a good idea in this album, it is buried by the very bad production. Regarding the ambient track that the listener can at least listen to it and understand what he listens to, it creates a beautiful atmosphere, it creates feelings, but it is repetitive, monotonous and it becomes tedious.

In general the mystery around Arkhtinn, I think it stops as soon as the listener listens to their album. Beyond that the mystery is transformed into a bad joke as the listener can’t even achieve to understand what he listens to. Nevertheless I think that also musically, by all these I managed to understand, this album has nothing to offer to the listener. Avoid.