Artist: Dark Tribe
Title: Archaic Visions
Type: Album
Label: Black Hate

Reviewing this back-to-back with the new Deathspell Omega has been an interesting experience and one that for me, has really underlined a few inclinations I’ve been entertaining with regards to the whole black metal genre. On the surface, this has every box ticked for a gnarly, underground experience - unashamedly OTT rhetoric (this album is destined to take me ‘...one step closer to complete and utter insanity’ apparently) and a classic Darkthrone 2-piece line up. Hell, it was even recorded by the aptly-monikered ‘Angel of Doom’ who as worked with Katharsis and Morrigan amongst others. And lo, all the ingredients are in place - the vocals are a hellish shriek and the sound is laced with that classic ‘hiss ‘n’ rumble’ corrosiveness that lends Katharsis much of their sonic menace. But do you know what? As much as it pains me to say this, it’s also all rather dated, safe and quaint.

Yes, I am afraid that the brand of melodic lo-fi black metal unleashed by Dark Tribe sounds about as threatening or edgy as the latest Saxon album. As much as messrs Asordis and Jenseits undoubtedly wish otherwise, ‘Archaic Visions’ is an astoundingly lightweight affair, bereft of any real sense of danger or threat that so characterises the most effective acts within the genre. Indeed, for all of the yelling about psychotic trauma and the ‘absorbing abyss’, this is some of the most tritely melodic material I have heard in years. ‘Endless War’ for example plays out a harmonized refrain that essentially sounds like a slowed-down latter-day Iron Maiden riff. The end of ‘Children of the Forgotten Times’ is positively bouncy whilst ‘Suicide is the Light’ boasts a central theme that is undeniably uplifting.

This isn’t to suggest that Archaic Visions is bad per-se - it isn’t - but the fuzzy, comforting accessibility of the material does feel at odds with the portrayal of the band as underground black metal hate-machines. At points, it’s heavily reminiscent of Peste Noire’s much lauded debut album but somehow lacks the palpable sense of menace and lunacy that elevated the Frenchmen’s brand of melodic underground black metal beyond the ordinary. For sure, there’s enough absorbing passages within ‘Archaic Visions’ (‘When Fear Turns Into Hate’, ‘Desperation’) to make the album worthy of at least passing interest but perhaps no more than that.

http://www.darktribe.de